Genre: Animation
Director: Sunao Katabuchi
Cast: Non, Yoshimasa Hosoya, Minori Omi, Natsuki Inaba, Daisuke Ono, Megumi Han
Runtime: 2 hrs 10 mins
Rating: PG13 (Brief Nudity)
Released By: Encore Films
Official Website:

Opening Day: 6 July 2017

Synopsis: The award-winning story follows a young girl named Suzu Urano (voiced by Non), who in 1944 moves to the small town of Kure in Hiroshima where she marries Shusaku Hojo (voiced by Yoshimasa Hosoya)—a young clerk who works at the local naval base. Living with his family, Suzu learns to adjust to her new life and soon becomes essential to the running of the household during the tough war-stricken climate. Despite the difficult kitchen conditions of wartime regulation, drinking the wisdom of the world, the Hojo family live out their day-to-day lives with Suzu’s creative meals and infectious optimism. The war, however, progresses to ever-growing bleakness. In 1945, intense bombings by the U.S. military finally reach Kure with devastating effect to the townsfolk and their way of life. Suzu’s life is changed irrevocably, and she must now find a way to maintain the will to live.

Movie Review:

‘Your Name’ may have been all the rage in Japan last year, but writer/director Sunao Katabuchi’s crowd-funded adaptation of Fumiyo Kono’s popular manga ‘Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni’ was perhaps even more warmly received by local critics, who bestowed on it numerous awards including Best Japanese Film in the 90^th Kinema Junpo Best 10 Award. Both are tonally quite different – whereas the former speaks to the awkwardness of adolescence in its depiction of teenage love and the mysterious hand of fate, the latter harks back to the tragedies of World War II through the coming-of-age tale of an artless, dreamy young woman in the 1940s and strives instead to be thoughtful, restrained and elegiac. In short, you’re not likely to experience or emerge from Katabuchi’s film on an emotional high; in fact, this period anime unfolds on such its own leisurely pace that you’ll need to prepare yourself to settle in fully to appreciate its gentle charms, though we suspect that at slightly over two hours, some will no doubt find their patience duly tested.

Like his previous ‘Mai Mai Miracle’, the lead protagonist Suzu’s tale boasts a similar pastoral tone, although the time period here is about one or two decades earlier. Seven-year-old Suzu is living in Eba, a small seaside town in Hiroshima, with her parents and an older brother and sister. From young, Suzu’s lively sense of imagination is plainly evident; and a scene in her teenage years seals her bond with childhood sweetheart Tetsu through her painting of the sea and its waves as white rabbits, inspired by his description of the ocean. But Suzu’s story really begins at the age of 18 in the year 1944, when she accepts a marriage proposition from Shūsaku from all the way in the naval port city of Kure. Shūsaku remembers meeting Suzu all the way back in December 1933, but Suzu has no recollection of him; notwithstanding, she follows her grandmother’s advice and accepts his proposal, moving in with him and his elderly parents on a hillside in the suburbs of Kure.

Without any hint of haste, the middle act devotes itself to Suzu’s struggles settling down into her new life of domestication – cooking, fetching water, sewing kimonos, getting fresh produce from the market etc. Given how Suzu has always had her head in the clouds, these responsibilities as a housewife don’t come easy to her, and it doesn’t help that her sister-in-law Keiko, who has moved back along with her daughter Harumi after her husband’s unfortunate death from illness, seems perpetually displeased with her. Slowly but surely, the war makes its effect felt on Suzu as well as on the household: food becomes scarce; essentials like sugar are rationed; the twice-nightly air raids drive the family underground like ritual; and last but not least, Shūsaku as well as her father-in-law Entarō spend more and more time at their posts as a naval clerk and engineer respectively, with the increasingly frequent bombings placing their lives at increasing risk (true enough, Entarō goes missing after the raids hit the Hiro Naval Arsenal, though he is eventually found safe but injured in hospital).

It is at the two-third mark that tragedy strikes. A key character dies in a time-delayed explosion of a bomb dropped during one of the firebombing runs by US naval airplanes; and Suzu’s world withers into a flurry of white lines twisting and fluttering across empty black space. That same explosion also renders her forever incapable of doing the one thing she loves best, i.e. painting. And then the pivotal event happens – the atomic bomb which falls on Hiroshima, erupting in a tremor, a flash, then a huge cloud rising from the ground into the sky, and for a while, Suzu is unable to enter Hiroshima or get any information if her own family was killed in the blast. When the radio broadcasts resume, they are of news of Japan’s surrender, and the sudden ostensible futility of the whole war as well as the costs it had exacted on her bring Suzu to the brink of emotional despair. It is during the third and last act that the movie takes on newfound poignancy, depicting the disillusionment of an ordinary Japanese citizen whose life is thrown into disarray by the terrible monstrosity of war.

But it is also precisely this last third that gets under our skin for the wrong reasons. Certainly, the change in perspective is insightful; too often, victims of war have been portrayed as non-Japanese, when in fact there are countless Japanese whose lives were either disrupted or destroyed by World War II, especially by the twin US atomic bombs that decimated their cities. Yet it is deeply troubling that not a single one of the characters acknowledges their side’s role in the war in the first place and how all of it could equally, and perhaps even more completely, been avoided if the Japanese army had not possessed such imperialistic ambitions at the outset; in fact, Suzu even rails the army for surrendering when she hears of it on the radio, questioning why they had not kept true to their word to ‘fight until the very last man standing’. One could of course argue that she meant that cynically, but the truth is that it isn’t entirely clear if she did not intend it literally. It isn’t quite that we are expecting some form of apology, but the undeniable undertones in painting the Japanese as victims is deeply troubling to say the least.

And it is for that reason that we refuse to embrace Katabuchi’s admirable but politically disquieting anime. It isn’t that it is somewhat languid and narratively lethargic, even though we’re sure mainstream audiences who embraced ‘Your Name’ will probably find it so. It is more that what happens in Suzu’s corner of the world ignores the reality in other parts of the world, i.e. that there were countless others who suffered, even more needlessly, when the Japanese had invaded and bombed their land, before the rest of the world united behind the US in ending the war decisively and resolutely. As beguiling and appealing as its animation may be and portrait of rustic civilian life in the 1940s may be, there is simply no way to love it wholeheartedly when you realise that it may simply be subtly manipulating your emotions to rewrite the narrative on Japanese WWII aggression.

Movie Rating:

(Beautiful and beguiling as its pastoral tale of life in Japan before, during and after World War II may be, the undeniable political undertones in Sunao Katabuchi’s anime will leave you wary, and even disturbed)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Comedy/Romance
Director: Michael Showalter
Cast: Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano, Anupam Kher
Runtime: 2 hrs
Rating: NC-16 (Coarse Language and Some Sexual References)
Released By: Shaw 
Official Website: http://www.thebigsickmovie.com

Opening Day: 27 July 2017

Synopsis: Based on the real-life courtship: Pakistan-born comedian Kumail and grad student Emily fall in love, but they struggle as their cultures clash. When Emily contracts a mysterious illness, Kumail must navigate the crisis with her parents and the emotional tug-of-war between his family and his heart.

Movie Review:

It sure feels like there hasn’t been a better time for actors of South Asian descent than now when it comes to minority visibility in Tinseltown – think television’s Aziz Ansari (Master of None; Parks and Recreation) and Mindy Kaling (The Mindy Project), or even Priyanka Chopra’s (admittedly meh) Hollywood big-screen debut in this year’s Baywatch. So, it seems as good a time as any for Pakistani-American Kumail Nanjiani to make his unlikely – by Hollywood standards at least - romantic-comedy male lead debut in The Big Sick. Throw in Judd Apatow’s producer credentials to the mix – Apatow has a knack for hewing atypical genre successes out of awkward dude-desirable lady couplings – and you have a film which suggests at least a couple of sellable propositions.

To ramble on any further about the other forces at work in this film however feels like a disservice to the two personalities at its core. The Big Sick delivers, and delivers well at that, and much of the credit naturally goes to Pakistani-American Nanjiani and his wife Emily V. Gordon: real-life comedy writer-performers, co-screenwriters responsible for much of the film’s funny, heart-warming material and of course, chief pilots who’ve chartered the course of their own incredible real-life romance upon which the movie is based.

Truth be told, even pigeon-holing the film as rom-com feels like potential prejudice and detraction from the depth it achieves in exploring various types of relationships: romantic ones between uncertain lovers, familial ones between first and second-generation immigrants, trust-building ones between a man and his girlfriend’s parents, whom he encounters for the first time. It does all of this while juggling a number of other topics with admirable ease and nuance: the American stand-up comedy scene, cultural and immigrant-identity tensions, as well as a life-changing health crisis. The fact that much of the film is based on true events lends sufficient heft and an air of authenticity, which it wryly sprinkles with a fine dust of sentimentality to satisfy the die-hard romantics.

Tired cabbie and terrorist-related stereotypes get a flavour du jour update in the form of Uber-driving Nanjiani (playing himself in the film), whose true passion involves honing his stand-up comedian skills at a bar in Chicago while incorporating his Pakistani-Muslim roots into his acts and deliberating ISIS-related jokes. At one of the shows, he meets Emily (played by Zoe Zazan), a post-grad student on track to becoming a therapist. Her friendly heckling of Nanjiani during the show turns out to be the serendipitous spark that sets off the chain of events between them. Something that ought to have been a one-night stand between two commitment-phobes soon develops into a proper relationship.

What is a romantic comedy without some initial strife (we already know it’s a happy ending because, you know, refer to real life), and this comes in the form of Nanjiani’s traditional parents (played by Anupam Kher and Zenobia Shroff), who spare no effort in arranging a succession of eligible Pakistani-Muslim wives for him. While he’s not interested in them, he keeps Emily in the dark about this (and her from his family), and basically crap hits the fan when she uncovers the fact. If the film’s already been sailing comfortably away from the usual rom-com territory so far, it suddenly and boldly nosedives when the titular ‘big sick’ happens.

Emily is struck with a mysterious lung infection before the acrimony between our heroes can be resolved, and has to be put into a medically-induced coma while doctors race against time to save her. Nanjiani realises he still loves her and though the mood starkly changes from here, this turning point is also arguably where the film starts to engage its audiences most tenderly. Emily’s parents, Beth (Holly Hunter) and Terry (Ray Romano) enter the fray, fully aware of the hurt Nanjiani’s inflicted on their daughter and definitely displeased. While she sleeps blissfully unaware of all the clamouring going on around her, the script takes its time to flesh out these side characters as they gradually bond with Nanjiani over hospital visits, home sleepovers and attending one of his stand-up comedy shows.

The Big Sick’s investment in developing the roles of not only its romantic leads but their family members pays off, because it affords nearly all of the actors, main or supporting, solid material to sparkle in their performances. In particular, veterans Hunter and Romano almost steal the limelight, exuding feistiness and vulnerability in solid doses, as the fissures in their own relationship are exposed and healed. Kher and Shroff also sizzle as the other set of parents, portraying their internal tug-of-wars between obligation to tradition and love for their son with much comic aplomb.

Needless to say, the film wouldn’t have worked without the accomplished renderings of its protagonists. Nanjiani may already have lived through much of the story’s events in real life, but he succeeds in substituting affectation with a heightened sensitivity in his autobiographical portrayal. In the film, he tackles his fledgling comedian career and his issues with Emily, Emily’s parents and his own parents with enough wide-eyed optimism for audiences to root for him, despite his obvious imperfections. Nanjiani’s chemistry alongside the disarmingly dorky charm of Zazan’s Emily is also convincingly palpable and it’s difficult not to get misty-eyed when Emily recovers from her near-death experience. “In sickness and in health”’ suddenly takes on a shape we can visualise, and we’re not even talking about wedding bells here yet.

If it all sounds like The Big Sick is a serious film, it isn’t. At its heart, it’s still comedy and it’s as funny as it’s warm. To the film’s huge credit, it does not fall into the trap of milking cheap laughs or gaffes from intercultural conflict (in fact the film never shows Emily meeting Nanjiani’s parents), choosing instead to address how he and his family negotiate their internal affairs in humorous fashion and how he wins them over because they are quite simply – family. The co-screenwriters’ sense of comic timing also comes through in the witty on-screen repartee between Ninjiani and Emily, as well as with the other characters around him. Catch this flick if you’re into intelligent comedy, but also because it breathes new life into a number of universal truths run threadbare by other genre contemporaries – that it doesn’t quite matter the forms taken by life’s curveballs; love wins when it’s meant to and if everyone works hard enough at it.

Movie Rating:

(Charming, touching, tender and still managing to be funny, this perceptive romantic-comedy loosely based on a real-life story succeeds in hitting all the right spots)

Review by Tan Yong Chia Gabriel

Genre: Action/Thriller
Director: Antonio Negret
Cast: Scott Eastwood, Freddie Thorp, Ana De Armas, Gaia Weiss
Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence and Coarse Language)
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films 
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 29 June 2017

Synopsis: Andrew and Garrett Foster are not only exceptional drivers but also known for being the best car thieves in the world. In Marseille, they steal the local mafia boss Jacomo Morier’s jewel, a rare and priceless Bugatti 1937. Morier decides to use their talents in his profit and against his long-time enemy, Max Klemp. But if they accept to enter this game, they actually have devised a much more daring plan Travel to the French Riviera in search of new challenges (both in the bedroom and on the road), but who find themselves in the crosshairs of the local crime bosses and their rare and priceless car collections.

Movie Review:

To its credit, ‘Overdrive’ never does try to be a ‘Fast and Furious’ movie; instead, it draws its inspiration from heist thrillers like ‘The Italian Job’, ‘Gone in 60 Seconds’ and even the ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ series to deliver decent escapist fun within a brisk 96 minutes.

The prize here is a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, owned by local mob boss Max Klemp (Fabian Wolfrom), which half-brothers Andrew (Scott Eastwood) and Garrett Foster (Freddie Thorp) offer to steal for another mob boss Jacomo Morier (Simon Abkarian) as trade for their lives. Andrew and Scott had earlier on stolen Morier’s 1937 Bugatti right after the man had paid $41 million euros for it at a Sotheby’s auction, and Morier had agreed to the exchange only because Klemp is his longtime business arch-rival. Besides Andrew and Garrett, the crew consists of Andrew’s gorgeous soon-to-be fiancé Stephanie (Ana de Armas), Stephanie’s serial pickpocket friend Devin (Gaia Weiss), demolitions expert Leon (Joshua Fitoussi) and a bevy of other nameless professional drivers. The plan is textbook masquerade – roll up to Max’s sprawling residence pretending to be GIGN on a raid, then drive the car away after Leon has fled from the compound.

As you can probably expect, there are more than a few complications along the way. Mourier sends a distant cousin Laurent (Abraham Belaga) to join in the mission, in order to make sure that the Foster brothers carry through their end of the bargain. Two Interpol officers pop up midway through their planning preparations, threatening to keep a close watch on Andrew and Garrett. Stephanie is kidnapped the day before they are scheduled to execute the heist, intended as Mourier’s further leverage against Andrew. Screenwriters Michael Brandt and Derek Haas also throw in a web of shifting alliances to keep us guessing. Is Andrew and Garrett working for Mourier or Klemp? Whose side is Laurent on? What about Stephanie and Devin? There are surprisingly more twists and turns to the plotting than we’d expected, and for the most part, these are satisfactorily resolved by the time the engines cool and the credits roll.

Not surprisingly, with so much going on amidst the car chase sequences we will get to below, there isn’t much attention paid to character dynamics. One of the earlier scenes has Andrew telling Garrett that he wants their life of crime no more, content instead to settle down with Stephanie after this job is done, to which Garrett responds with indignation. Yet their potential falling out never quite develops into anything substantial; instead, the relationship between Andrew and Garrett continues to be defined no deeper than the playful jibes they take at each other. Ditto that between Andrew and Stephanie, which stays stuck at the former being overprotective of the latter. Perhaps the only relationship that sees some progress over the course of the movie is that between Garrett and Devin, who find themselves unable to resist the other and end up falling in love and in bed with each other.

But frankly, our low expectations heading into the movie were still pleasantly exceeded with an unexpectedly knotty plot as well as the exciting setpieces: the first which sees Andrew and Garrett steal the Bagutti from a moving truck; the second which has them pursued by Mourier’s men along the streets of Marseille; and the last which puts them in vintage cars engaged in a high-speed chase along the French Riviera. Though he is credited only as producer, Pierre Morel’s handprints are unmistakeable, emphasising practical stunts over CGI and medium to wide shots in order to keep the action real, palpable and discernible (yes, Morel is the director of the very first ‘Taken’, before his fellow French compadre ruined it all with ‘Bourne’-style jerky-cam). Such is the stuff that the ‘Fast and Furious’ movies were borne out of, and the pedal-to-metal action is choreographed and executed here with flair, imagination and sheer white-knuckle suspense.  

To be sure, ‘Overdrive’ never rises above its B-movie trappings, but director Antonio Negret harbours no such ambition from start to finish. Rather, he knows his audience is here to see cars chasing each other – and on that count alone, he succeeds admirably, inserting enough narrative amidst the action to keep you engaged throughout. You’ll need to set your expectations right in order to enjoy this one, but if you, like us, expected no more than a string of thrilling French-set action sequences, then you’ll find that there is more than enough juice here in the can to make your adrenaline go into overdrive.

Movie Rating:

(A couple of well-choreographed, exciting chase sequences and some unexpected narrative twists and turns make this heist thriller enough escapist fun)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Almost 15 years on, the very recognisable “He’s a Pirate” cue from Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is one of the most played movie themes, alongside beloved melodies from the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings series.

You can’t escape the music – with every new movie produced in the franchise, the composer is expected to incorporate the theme into the score. For the fifth installment of the swashbuckler blockbuster movies produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and based on Walt Disney's theme park ride of the same name, Geoff Zanelli takes over from Hans Zimmer as composer.

Back in 2003 when the music for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was being written, schedule to produce the music was very tight and several composers were called upon to help orchestrate the music and write additional cues. Zanelli was one of them and through the following years, he has been working with Zimmer on many feature films.

How does the alumnus of the prestigious Berklee College of Music fare here? Not bad at all, we’d say.

First, the soundtrack album gets points for containing more than 70 minutes of music. No songs, no remixes – just over an hour of bombastic score fit for sailing the high seas. Tracks are substantially long: “El Matador del Mar” runs at eight minutes, while “Kill the Sparrow”, “The Brightest Star in the North” and “I’ve Come With the Butcher’s Bill” clock runtimes of more than six minutes each.  

While there are many throwback moments with iconic themes from previous films, the most notable addition to this score is the villain theme for Javier Bardem’s Captain Salazar. The electric guitar strums do not know the meaning of subtlety, and forces the melody in your face imposingly. The theme is menacing, badass and isn’t shy about numbing your senses.

A large part of the soundtrack is deafening, pompous and almost overbearing. This doesn’t mean that we didn’t enjoy the music as it is till lots of fun - just take note not to play it when you’re having a migraine. There are tender and soaring moments too, particularly in the last two cues “My Name is Barbossa” and “Beyond My Beloved Horizon”. Fans will recognise the love theme from 2007’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, and be in awe with the music’s epicness.  

ALBUM RATING:

Recommended Track: (16) My Name is Barbossa

Review by John Li

Genre: Action/Thriller
Director: Martin Campbell
Cast: Jackie Chan, Pierce Brosnan, Katie Leung, Liu Tao, Orla Brady, Ray Fearon, Rory Fleck-Byrne, Michael McElhatton, Charlie Murphy, Stephen Hogan
Runtime: 1 hr 54 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Some Coarse Language and Violence)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures, Clover Films
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 28 September 2017

Synopsis: Starring Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan, action-drama movie THE FOREIGNER is based on a 1992 novel, The Chinaman. The British-Chinese co-production also stars Charlie Murphy, Orla Brady, Liu Tao and Katie Leung. The movie tells the story of Quan (Jackie Chan) a humble London business man, whose long-buried past erupts in a revenge-fueled vendetta when his teenage daughter dies in a senseless act of politically motivated terrorism. His relentless search to find the terrorists leads to a cat-and-mouse conflict with a British government official Hennessy (Pierce Brosnan), whose own past may hold the clues to the identities of the elusive killers.

Movie Review:

Martin Campell (Goldeneye, Casino Royale) hasn’t made a feature length movie after his 2011’s critically panned and poorly received superhero movie, The Green Lantern. Maybe all this while, he is taking his time to look for a suitable script or maybe he is just looking for the right actor to make a comeback, one that can prove to his detractors he still has the spirit and might to make a compelling movie.

Since helming an immersive popular superhero property was a disaster for the veteran director, it’s best to return to some old school storytelling and mano-a-mano action. Campbell bounced back to the screen with this vengeance tale named The Foreigner which is based on a novel written by journalist turned writer Stephen Leather and adapted to a screenplay by David Marconi (Enemy of the State, Live Free or Die Hard).

Quan Ngoc Minh (Jackie Chan) is an ordinary, hardworking immigrant in his sixties who owns a Chinese restaurant in the heart of London. When his only surviving daughter (Katie Leung from the Harry Potter series in a 10 seconds appearance) is killed in a bomb blast, the devastated doting father is determined to hunt down the killers and that includes stalking the Irish Deputy Minister, Liam Hennessy (Pierce Brosnan) who has a chequered past with the terrorist cell for information.

If you could forgive the fact that the screenplay does little to diverge from the original material (which was first published during IRA’s heydays in the nineties) with the motives of the terrorists seem dated and irrelevant, the merciless bombing incidents seen in The Foreigner is actually an eerie replica of what’s happening in current day London. Perhaps it’s too sensitive a subject to touch on especially with the recent attacks or perhaps there are too many similar conspiracy theme movies out there that Campbell choses to focus on UK and Ireland’s troubled past instead. 

Certainly, The Foreigner has no lack of underground politics, dubious government officials and countless layers of conspiracy theories - and you assume Campbell is going to walk in and deliver a no-brainer, revenge flick. For sure, die-hard moviegoers are going to compare this to Campbell’s 2010 thriller Edge Of Darkness which starred troubled star Mel Gibson on a trail of vengeance after his daughter is killed on his doorstep. Both movies had the leading actor looking for revenge after the loss of their daughters and both movies offer shady government operations etc. However, while the latter is massively talky and lacking of a good action set piece, The Foreigner compensates by having a rather captivating pacing and of course, actors (not just kung fu star mind you) Jackie Chan and Brosnan.    

With intended aged makeup applied and elderly mannerism, Chan remarkably looks and nails the part of a grief-stricken man who has lost every of his lost ones over the years. Clearly, Quan is a role that is made for Chan. It’s a character that requires him to showcase his acting chops and also to fight in which he obviously delivers in a few key action scenes. We first see Quan in action in a small bed-and-breakfast, before he proceeds to take down several men in the forest later on. No doubt the action sequences are all too brief, nevertheless it’s brutal and swift, constantly putting viewers on the edge. Thanks to renowned stunt coordinator Greg Powell and JC stunt team, the action is apparently more grounded than Chan’s usual flashy moves since his character is military-trained in combat.   

Pierce Brosnan on the other hand has it easy. His character gets to romance a younger woman (might not be a good thing as it turned out), he finally gets to speak in his native Irish accent and his frequent co-star onscreen is a handphone! Jokes aside, Brosnan gets to chew up the scenery as the ambiguous minister, a complex man who might or might not be linked to all the terrorist bombings in London. Even though this is touted as the first collaboration between Chan and Brosnan, the two legends have less than three scenes on the screen together which is pretty much a pity.

Despite a relatively familar storyline, The Foreigner is one hell of a ride courtesy of Campbell’s masterly hands at the helm and Brosnan’s engaging performance. As for our man Jackie, this ranks among the best of his serious roles after Shinjuku Incident and Crime Story. For younger fans who can’t get enough of Chan’s acting, you can check out his much earlier dramatic role in Heart of Dragon opposite Sammo Hung. 

Movie Rating:

(Possibly the best Jackie Chan’s flick in a decade! Not forgetting the good efforts of Campbell and Brosnan)

Review by Linus Tee

Genre: Action/Comedy
Director: Patrick Hughes
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Oldman, Salma Hayek, Elodie Yung, Richard E. Grant, Joaquim de Almeida
Runtime: 1 hr 51 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Violence and Coarse Language)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/hitmansbodyguard/

Opening Day: 17 August 2017

Synopsis: The world’s top protection agent (Ryan Reynolds) is called upon to guard the life of his mortal enemy, one of the world’s most notorious hitmen (Samuel L. Jackson). The relentless bodyguard and manipulative assassin have been on the opposite end of the bullet for years and are thrown together for a wildly outrageous 24 hours. During their raucous and hilarious adventure from England to the Hague, they encounter high-speed car chases, outlandish boat escapades and a merciless Eastern European dictator (Gary Oldman) who is out for blood. Salma Hayek joins the mayhem as Jackson’s equally notorious wife.

Movie Review:

What will the world do without Ryan Reynolds?

There is so much love for the Canadian actor on social media. With blurbs like “Do we really deserve Ryan Reynolds though?”, “There can never be enough Ryan Reynolds in the world”, “Ryan Reynolds = classiest guy alive”, “Ryan Reynolds is the best thing that ever happened to Twitter” and “We’ve died and gone to Ryan heaven”, things can’t really go wrong when you cast the Vancouver born actor in a movie.

And then we have Samuel L Jackson.

If you have seen his collaborations with director Quentin Tarantino on Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), Django Unchained (2012), and The Hateful Eight (2015), you would know that the prolific American actor is dripping with screen presence. He is not someone you’d want to f*** around with. The 68 year old has appeared in over 100 movies (all hail Mace Windu from the Star Wars franchise!), and casting him in a movie probably means things won’t go wrong either.

So we have Reynolds and Jackson in Patrick Hughes’ latest movie about a protection agent who is tasked with guarding the life of one of the world’s most notorious hitmen. And this is the best part about the action flick also starring Gary Oldman, Elodie Yung and Salma Hayek.

The script written by Tom O’ Connor was one of the 2011 Black List of unproduced screenplays. Originally penned as a drama, it was re-written and remade into a comedy several weeks before filming began. That’s a good thing, given the chemistry between the movie’s two leading men. Things wouldn’t be as fun if they were exchanging serious dialogue.

Reynolds and Jackson probably had the time of their lives during production, as they play a pair of bodyguard and hitman who travel from the United Kingdomto the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands. Their journey is filled with gun shootouts, car chases, boat escapes and ruthless assassins. Despite fighting against time to defeat a European dictator (Oldman, who always impresses even with limited screen time), the duo still make time to curse and swear at each other – try counting the number of times “m*****f*****” is whispered, said and shouted in the movie! Hayek contributes to this as Jackson’s easily pissed wife who is imprisoned in jail.

Unfortunately, the two men’s antics are the best thing about the 111 minute movie, which could be easily be half an hour shorter. There isn’t anything particularly innovative about the premise: the buddy flick repeats many of the clichés you’ve seen elsewhere (Lethal Weapon, Bad Boys), the loud and brash action sequences feel uninspired, and you get a nagging feeling that the whole setup is for Reynolds and Jackson to feed off each other’s popularity. Hughes’, whose notable work before this was The Expendables 3 (2014), also seems to have a thing for falling buildings and deafening explosions.

But when you see how attractive Reynolds looks on the big screen (the dude looks like a 28 year old man child stuck in the body of a 40 year old), everything is forgiven. 

Movie Rating:

(The best thing about this dispensable popcorn flick is the chemistry and banter between its two leading men)

Review by John Li

Genre: Comedy/Fantasy
Director: Jeffrey Lau
Cast: Gillian Chung, Charlene Choi, He Jiong, Joey Yung, Patrick Tam
Runtime: 1 hr 24 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Sexual References and Violence)
Released By: Shaw 
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 6 July 2017

Synopsis: During the Song Dynasty, a Mongolian soccer team made up of freaks with superpowers kill soldiers from the opposing country under the guise of a match. The defeated are forced to give up their land. One day, the Mongolians publicly challenge the Song to a match. The Song Emperor loves his citizens greatly, and is left with no choice but to accept the challenge. A nationwide competition is held to scout for the best players. Princess Chang Ping, determinedly patriotic, leaves the palace to form a soccer team comprising of the eight greatest martial arts sects…

Movie Review:

Two decades after it was first released, ‘A Chinese Odyssey Part Two: Cinderella’ was re-released in Mainland cinemas earlier this year with about ten minutes of additional footage. By the time it ended its month-long run, the Stephen Chow cult classic had become the top-grossing re-release ever. Despite critics’ decrying it as a blatant cash grab that adds little to the original cut’s interpretation, audiences were seemingly unfazed, demonstrating just how much love there is for Chow as well as the ‘mo-lei-tau’ brand of wacky anachronistic period comedy which he and writer-director Jeffrey Lau patented in the late 1980s and early 1990s. And yet ironically, the greater your sense of nostalgia, the more you will be disappointed by Lau’s attempts in the past few years to recapture the same comedic spirit. From 2010’s ‘Just Another Pandora’s Box’ to 2011’s ‘East Meets West 2011’ to 2014’s ‘Just Another Margin’ and right up to last year’s in-name only sequel ‘A Chinese Odyssey Part Three’, not one has come close to matching the genius of Lau’s earlier films.  

His latest, titled ‘Soccer Killer’, unfortunately belongs more to the former than the latter. Written and directed by Lau, it tells of how Princess Changping (Gillian Chung) of the Song Dynasty recruits the masters of the eight once-glorious martial arts sects to play in a soccer match against a formidable team named the Eagle Claws under the charge of the Mongolian barbarian Leopard Khan. At stake is the very sovereignty of the kingdom itself, no thanks to the corrupt Prime Minister Qin (played by Lau himself). As we learn from the prologue, no less than the likes of Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Storm, Cyclops, Spider-Man, Logan and Captain Fantastic make up the Eagle Claws; though we’re quite sure Marvel will be none too happy to learn what their band of superheroes have been doing in between blockbusters; by the time we get to the pivotal match, no less than the Monkey King, the Eight Immortals and Buddha will have come to the Song’s rescue – and that is fair warning of just how illogical you’ll have to prepare it will get in this spoof where anything goes.

Frankly, that isn’t a deterrent in and of itself; indeed, such silly, even nonsensical, humour has always been a defining feature of Lau’s comedies. What distinguishes the classics of the past from the ignominies of the more recent is the hilarity of the gags within, which this latest again comes up short. Among the three chapters the movie divides itself into, the most entertaining is in fact the first titled ‘The Phoenix becomes the Pheasant’, in reference to how Princess Changping sheds her image of royalty to adopt a male disguise in order to recruit the eight Sect masters. As it turns out, these masters – including Sword Master Guo Huaqiang (Corey Yuen), Palm Master Zhang Sanfeng (Li Jing), abbess Miejue (Stephy Tang) and abbot Master Yideng (Lam Tze Chung) – are but a pale shadow of their former glorious selves, and between them and the two disciples – Lang (He Jiong) and Ling (Charlene Choi) – of a ninth now-defunct Mount Mao Sect, there is plenty of good humour to be had spoofing the genre elements of the typical ‘wuxia’ film.

In comparison, the ensuing two chapters prove duller and a lot less inspired. The middle chapter titled ‘Finding True Love in Adversity’ develops a budding romance between Lang and Princess Changping as both are held captive at a remote mountain village after being kidnapped by a band of assassins who call themselves the Jiangdong 108; but their unlikely relationship has few laughs and little chemistry. A running gag sees Lang introduce the villagers to Super Barbie inflatable dolls which become instant playmates for the children as well as companions for the grown-up males, but it is at best bemusing and never quite amusing. The obviously titled third chapter ‘Kingdom of Xianglong versus the Eagle Claws’ sees Prime Minister Qin exploit the romantic rivalry between Ling and Princess Changping for Lang’s affections, before culminating in an over-the-top duel between the aforementioned teams that stands out as a showcase of terrible CGI. Not even the references to Pandora’s Box can save the last act from being creatively bereft, nor for that matter the invocation of mythological Chinese characters for an eventual Eastern-meets-Western superheroes showdown.

Certainly, not the combined star power of the TWINS or the ‘Happy Camp’ hosts are a match for the powerhouse combo of Chow, Athena Chu, Karen Mok, Ng Man-tat and Law Kar-ying, but that isn’t the main reason why ‘Soccer Killer’ is barely even a poor cousin of ‘A Chinese Odyssey’ – simply, it just isn’t as witty or as laugh-out-loud crazy as it should be. Lau himself seems to acknowledge the same at the obligatory happily-ever-after ending, with one of the palace servants reflecting on everything that has happened and telling his partner that it is no better than a stupid movie which should be quickly forgotten – though frankly, that’s hardly a tall order given how unmemorable the events within are. If for whatever reason you feel you have nothing better else to do and find yourself in the mood for some inanity however uninspired that may be, then ‘Soccer Killer’ is an 84-minute harmless time-killer you probably won’t mind. 

Movie Rating:

(Hardly as witty or as laugh-out-loud crazy as it should be, Jeffrey Lau's part-martial arts, part-superhero spoof is nevertheless a harmless time-killer, provided you're in the mood for uninspired inanity)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Crime/Drama
Director: Doug Liman
Cast: Tom Cruise, Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright, E. Roger Mitchell, Jesse Plemons, Lola Kirke, Alejandro Edda, Benito Martinez, Caleb Landry Jones, Jayma Mays
Runtime: 1 hr 55 mins
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scenes and Coarse Language)
Released By: UIP
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 31 August 2017

Synopsis: American Made is based on the outrageous (and real) exploits of Barry Seal, a hustler and pilot unexpectedly recruited by the CIA to run one of the biggest covert operations in U.S. history.

Movie Review:

If you had not known that the daredevil TWA pilot turned part-time CIA gun-runner and full-time Colombian drug smuggler Barry Seal was a real-life character, you might have thought that he was simply a classic Tom Cruise star showcase. Oh yes, in Seal’s larger-than-life adventures, we get a glimpse of the Tom Cruise we fell in love with in ‘Top Gun’, complete with aviator sunglasses and megawatt smile in the cockpit of a hi-spec jet. Coming off this summer’s dud ‘The Mummy’, this lively romp based on Barry’s larger-than-life true story finds Cruise in fine form; in fact, we’d even go so far as to say that Cruise makes the movie and probably the only reason why you need to see it.

Like the recent fact-based ‘War Dogs’ or ‘American Hustle’, ‘American Made’ isn’t so much concerned with historical accuracy as delivering a fast, fun and believably absurd comedy satire. In quick succession therefore, Barry goes from a bored TWA pilot smuggling Cuban cigars into the US from Canada and Mexico, to flying recon missions over Central America spying on communist rabble-rousers, to transporting cocaine from Colombia to the US for the Medellin cartel, to delivering case-loads of requisitioned AK-47s to the CIA-backed militias fighting the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, and last but not least to exposing senior officials within the Nicaraguan government for peddling drugs. Along the way, Barry narrates his own story in voiceover-flashback ‘Goodfellas’ style, acting occasionally as the audience surrogate to reflect our bemusement, bewilderment and even disbelief at the series of events.

By structuring the entire film from Barry’s point of view, ‘American Made’ cannot but be a character study, so it is somewhat disappointing to realise at the end of it all that Seal is simply meant to be a fundamentally decent guy whose luck and good graces ultimately ran out – hence the several domestic scenes of Barry playing the loyal and loving husband to wife Lucy (Sarah Wright) and his children. At best, it paints Barry as an ambitious, quick-witted and entrepreneurial fellow; at worst, it portrays him as overconfident, egotistical and whose undoing was an inevitable consequence of his own hubris. The surrounding characters hardly matter at all next to Barry – not even Pablo Escobar or his notable associate Jorge Ochoa – which only makes it even more obvious that how this is but a shallow, if one-note, depiction that becomes less and less interesting as the movie goes on, notwithstanding Cruise’s sheer undimmed charisma.

As director, Doug Liman (whose father investigated the Iran-Contra affair) provides plenty of historical context. Not only do we get to see old news footage of not one but two US presidents (if you’re interested to know, that’s Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan), there are also breezy animated inserts that take playful jabs at the interventionist politics of Reagan’s administration; even so, there is no attempt to turn this into political commentary at any juncture. Nor for that matter does Liman intend it to be a critique of the CIA and their undeniably questionable methods; for the most part, the spy organisation is represented only in the form of greasy junior operative Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson) and kept on the periphery while Barry conducts his other and much more salacious business.

And that is truly a pity, for ‘American Made’ therefore remains a glossy, but superficial, piece of filmmaking that is diverting while it lasts but instantly forgettable once it ends. It doesn’t say anything about Reagan’s absurdist foreign policy; it doesn’t say anything about the institutional corruption that allowed such a preposterous scenario to happen; and lastly, it says only that Barry was a good opportunist whose questionably achieved American dream eventually soured. So like we said at the start, the best thing it has going for it is Cruise, who is its charmed and immensely watchable centre. It is unmistakably American made all right, but one had hoped that could have stood for a lot more than something this lightweight and even inconsequential. 

Movie Rating:

(Tom Cruise has plenty of charm and charisma to spare, but not quite enough to disguise this lie of a lightweight, shallow and even inconsequential character study)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Drama
Director: Stephen Frears
Cast: Judi Dench, Adeel Akhtar, Simon Callow, Michael Gambon, Eddie Izzard, Ruth McCabe, Tim Pigott-Smith, Julian Wadham, Olivia Williams, Fenella Woolgar
Runtime: 1 hr 52 mins
Rating: PG (Some Coarse Language)
Released By: UIP
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 9 November 2017

Synopsis: The extraordinary true story of an unexpected friendship in the later years of Queen Victoria’s (Academy Award winner Judi Dench) remarkable rule. When Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal), a young clerk, travels from India to participate in the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, he is surprised to find favor with the Queen herself. As the Queen questions the constrictions of her long-held position, the two forge an unlikely and devoted alliance with a loyalty to one another that her household and inner circle all attempt to destroy. As the friendship deepens, the Queen begins to see a changing world through new eyes and joyfully reclaims her humanity.

Movie Review:

Twenty years after Judi Dench vaulted into cinema royalty with her portrayal of Queen Victoria in ‘Mrs Brown’, the most regal actress of our time revisits one of her most celebrated roles in a drama about the lonely monarch’s friendship with an Indian clerk named Abdul Karim, a relationship which the Victorian court was eager to bury owing to its almost scandalous nature. Even in today’s era of political correctness, it’s not difficult to see why – not only was Abdul a commoner, he was a brown-skinned Muslim who was elevated to a position of trust and power which had frustratingly eluded the sycophants in her royal household. Only because this episode was recorded in Abdul’s private diaries was it eventually brought to light by journalist Shrabani Basu in her book of the same name, which forms the basis of this Stephen Frears movie.

That said, a disclaimer at the start which reads “Based on real events… mostly” warns that some creative liberty has been taken with this adaptation. Indeed, rather than a straightforward retelling of their controversial relationship, Frears and his screenwriter Lee Hall have opted for a somewhat light-hearted retelling of Abdul’s initiation into the royal household, poking gentle fun at the reaction of the aristocratic bluenoses to his engagement as her footman and then as her munshi (or teacher). You can tell that Frears is aiming for humour right from the start when Abdul’s supervisor explains to him that he has been selected to present a ceremonial gold coin to His Majesty by the very and only virtue of his height, which also places him in stark contrast to his grumpy companion Mohammed (Adeel Akhtar), a much shorter fellow who was chosen against his own will to replace the other tall fellow whom had fallen off an elephant.

In the same way, Frears mines the elaborate etiquette and pantomime of the state dinner where Abdul is slated to present the coin for laughs – not only are the rest of the guests compelled to eat as fast as the Queen (the servants clear the plates for the next course as soon as she is done with hers), she ends up utterly bored with the occasion and falling asleep just before dessert is served. Abdul enters into her life of routine and monotony like a breath of fresh air, and after making eye contact despite being explicitly told not to do so as well as kissing her foot out of the blue at a public event, Victoria invites Abdul into her service. Soon, Victoria and Abdul are sharing intimate conversation over the Taj Mahal and mango chutney, she is learning Urdu from him, and she makes plans for Abdul to bring his own family to England to stay on the royal grounds with him.

It all is a little disconcerting for the rest of the royal consort to say the least, and led by the Queen’s own priggish son Bertie (Eddie Izzard), they make ever louder protests to the Queen, even threatening to quit en masse and declare her insane if she does not abandon her plans to confer knighthood on Abdul. There is no way to sugar-coat their outright bigotry, which is also the reason why the film takes on an abrupt change in tone during its last third as it deals with tensions within the Queen’s own household as well as with the Prime Minister (Michael Gambon) over her unlikely treatment of Abdul. The shift from comedy to drama is also calculated to whip up poignancy by the time the Queen succumbs to age and eventually passes on, leaving Abdul and his family at the mercy of the newly crowned King Edward VII, who proceeds to order the destruction of any and every trace of evidence of his mother’s relationship with Abdul. At least in that regard, Frears stays accurate to history, although that is unlikely to pacify criticisms that his film whitewashes the racism of the British Raj under a effusive sentiment of nostalgia for the former empire.

Still, if one weren’t to nitpick over accuracy and authenticity, then ‘Victoria and Abdul’ should make for perfectly genteel entertainment. Though the elements are all there for an incisive exploration of racial, culture and class tensions, Frears has dulled these in favour of a glossy prestige picture which is hardly concerned that it slowly but surely reduces Abdul to a spectator in his own movie. Even so, Dench is magisterial in the role of Victoria, the grand old dame at the age of 82 utterly nuanced and complex in her portrayal of the latter’s humanity in her loneliness, steeliness and emotional frailties. It is Dench’s show through and through, and the fundamental reason to watch this otherwise flawed, deliberately crowd-pleasing, exercise in casually revisionist history. 

Movie Rating:

(Judi Dench as Queen Victoria is better than the film itself, which is at best genteel crowd-pleasing entertainment that aims to preserve arthouse prestige while appealing to a mainstream audience)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Drama
Director: Ann Hui
Cast: Zhou Xun, Eddie Peng, Wallace Huo, Tony Leung, Jiang Wenli, Guo Tao, Huang Zhizong, Ivana Wong, Ray Lui, Deanie Ip, Nian Paw, Jessie Li, Sam Lee, Leung Man Tao, Eddie Cheung, Stanley Fung, Kingdom Yuen
Runtime: 2 hrs 11 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence)
Released By: mm2 Entertainment and Golden Village Pictures 
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 6 July 2017

Synopsis: During the 1941 World War occupation, the Japanese military pillaged homes and arrested cultural figures living in Hong Kong. The anti-Japanese Dongjiang guerilla unit is tasked to rescue these cultural figures and evacuating them from the besieged city. The occupation transformed Hong Kong from a prosperous city into a barren land with no food or water. Primary school teacher, Fang Lan (Zhou Xun) and her mother (Deanie Ip) are trying to live out this difficult period in a small run- down flat in Wanchai. After the schools are shut down, Lan – who recently broke up with Wing (Wallace Huo) - unwittingly finds herself embroiled in the guerillas’ mission to save novelist Mao Dun. In the process, she meets Blackie Lau (Eddie Peng), the intrepid sharpshooter captain of the guerillas’ Urban and Firearms unit. Taking notice of Lan’s calm, intelligent nature, Blackie recruits her to join the guerillas. Lan sets up a secret liaison point for the guerillas in the city, stealthily delivering intelligence and evacuating artists from the city under the watchful eyes of the Japanese military. Worried for her daughter’s safety, Lan’s mother volunteers to take Lan’s place as a courier, only to be arrested on the job. To save her mother, Lan is forced to turn to Wing, who now works for the Japanese...

Movie Review:

Two years ago, we celebrated Singapore’s 50^th anniversary. The historical drama 1965 directed by Randy Ang and co directed by Daniel Yun was made to commemorate the occasion. Alas, the resulting film didn’t go down too well with critics, no thanks to its weak attempt at being a sweeping epic with a stirring call to Singaporeans to feel proud of the nation. The best thing about the overstuffed movie was veteran actor Lim Kay Tong’s portrayal of Singapore’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew.

Is Singapore’s history not turbulent enough for an enticing drama? Or have there been no good storytellers to relate the right tales?

Not too far away in Asia, filmmaker Ann Hui’s latest project is branded to coincide with this year’s 20^th celebration of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule. The ‘celebratory gift’ is a smart marketing decision to sell the movie, and it definitely got the world watching. Fictionalised from actual events, the film tells the story of how guerillas to evacuate Chinese intellectuals out of Japanese occupied Hong Kongduring World War II.    

The protagonist (the ever perfect Zhou Xun) is an earnest teacher who gets recruited by a guerilla leader (Eddie Peng putting his mischievous image to good use) after she helps smuggle an intellectual author to safety. There is also her ex boyfriend (Wallace Huo looking very distinguished) who has infiltrated the Japanese occupation headquarters to gather information for the guerillas.

The film’s Chinese title is a poetic classical Chinese verse which evokes the greatness and romanticism of fighting for your country. In the movie, this was discussed between Huo’s character and the Japanese officer (Masatoshi Nagase, who also portrayed another poetry lover in Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson) he works for.

Hui, unlike her counterparts Wong Kar Wai, Tsui Hark and John Woo, is less flashy when it comes to making films. Her works are intimate and explore human relationships: The Postmodern Life of My Aunt (2006) tells the story of a woman who is falling behind in her times and gets taken advantage of by the people around her, The Way We Are (2008) is a drama about a working woman who befriends an older woman in a society where employment is scarce, while All About Love (2010) looks at the difficulties and challenges lesbians face in contemporary Hong Kong.

Although Hui’s account of Hong Kong’s underreported history features several action sequences, they are not bombastic. Her low key approach brings out the best in the ensemble cast. There is fine acting throughout, although you know many of the names that the star studded movie are meant to attract investors. Supporting roles are played by familiar faces like Guo Tao, Ivana Wong, Babyjohn Choi, Nina Paw, Sam Lee, Ray Lui, Stanley Fung, Kingdom Yuen and Candy Lo.

Zhou doesn’t disappoint with her absorbing performance. This time, her good work is complemented by Deanie Ip who shone in Hui’s A Simple Life (2011) where she played a loyal elderly female servant. Here, Ip is a disapproving mother turned courier who eventually gets captured by the Japanese. It is a powerfully moving showcase of good acting which equally inspiring and tear inducing. Tony Leung is also memorable as an ageing war veteran who narrates the story.

Come award season, expect this highly recommended film to score countless nominations.     

Movie Rating:

(A quietly moving piece of work boasting fine acting from the ensemble cast)

Review by John Li