Genre: Drama
Director: Daniel Cretton
Cast: Brie Larson, Naomi Watts, Woody Harrelson, Ella Anderson, Chandler Head, Max Greenfield, Josh Caras, Sarah Snook
Runtime: 2 hrs 9 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/GlassCastleFilm

Opening Day: 21 September 2017

Synopsis: Chronicling the adventures of an eccentric, resilient and tight-knit family, THE GLASS CASTLE is a remarkable story of unconditional love. Oscar(r) winner Brie Larson brings Jeannette Walls’s best-selling memoir to life as a young woman who, influenced by the joyfully wild nature of her deeply dysfunctional father (Woody Harrelson), found the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.

Movie Review:

Imagine a composer handed all the ingredients to orchestrate what could be a dark, gritty opera piece, doesn’t do so and chooses instead to transpose the music into an irreverently optimistic humoresque score. More often than not, this is exactly how it feels like what writer-director Destin Daniel Cretton has done with The Glass Castle, a story about familial dysfunctionality that is essentially a harrowing compendium of parenting fails.

That Cretton (and co-writer Andrew Lanham) would abet the parents depicted in his film in masking blatant child negligence as shimmery free-spiritedness, and shoehorn much of the richness of its source material into the confines of a formulaic story arc – a contrived climax with an all-too-tidy resolution to a good dose of family drama – comes across as befuddling at best. At its worst, his approach comes dangerously close to being outright patronising.

In this big screen adaptation of ex- New York magazine columnist Jeanette Walls’ best-selling memoir, truth appears to be stranger than fiction as it chronicles the true story of her poverty-stricken, small-town hillbilly beginnings up to her life in the late 80’s as a made-it-good yuppie. The movie sets the stage promisingly by opening with Jeanette (Brie Larson, previously directed by Cretton in Short Term 12) in the latter phase of her life, dining alongside her financial adviser fiancé David (Max Greenfield) and two other middle-upper-class types in a fancy restaurant in the Big Apple.

Despite Wall’s slicked-back coiffure and severe clothing choices (so stuffily styled, she looks as though she might as well be running for political office), covert differences in class and pedigree manifest themselves during this initial dinner conversation, from her obvious squirminess when asked about her family background to her sardonic, straight-talking humour. Presumably, you can take the lady out of the country, but you can’t take the country of her (a fact that sort of comes full circle by the end of the film).

If it all starts off swimmingly, the tone of the film however starts veering out of kilter soon enough. Much of the film alternates back and forth between Wall’s childhood as the second of four kids leading a near-vagabond existence with their parents, as well as her present newfound life in New York as a young working adult. It’s unfortunate though that the value of this narrative style does not feel fully realised (although this storytelling approach could well be a vestige from the print source – here, this reviewer should point out he hasn’t read the original memoir). Instead of purposefully juxtaposing and building up to how the facets of both Jeannette’s adult personality and her difficult relationship with her father are influenced by her past, the extensive flashbacks often feel more like discrete, episodic expositions of horror stories.

And this movie certainly makes us sit through way too many of such childhood episodes over the slightly sluggish course of two hours. Woody Harrelson stars as Rex, daydreamer-alcoholic father, while Naomi Watts plays Rose Mary, bohemian artist and complicit enabler of her husband’s errant ways. Rex has lofty plans to build a dream house of glass for his family (the titular glass castle that captures the imagination of a young, guileless Jeanette) but has issues with drinking, seeking legitimate employment and securing a permanent home for his brood. The film tries valiantly to convince us that the couple may be unfit parents, but they still love their kids. But stopping short of inflicting actual physical violence on their kids, everything depicted points to the fact that Rex and Rose Mary are borderline psychotic child abusers.

On one occasion, Rose Mary is too occupied with completing a painting to attend to a young and hungry Jeanette, leaving the child to cook sausages on her own with disastrous consequences. In another scene, Rex decides the best way the kid can learn how to swim is to simply dunk her in the deep end of a public pool. Repeatedly. What’s frustrating is how the movie misguidedly brushes these off as some kind of colourful, non-conformist parenting style – the kind of devil-may-care bravado Hollywood loves to celebrate. After countless horror stories like these and just when it appears the Wall kids have grown impervious to their parents’ antics, a violent altercation between Rex and Rose Mary that plays out like a warped French melodrama finally convinces Jeanette that her siblings and herself need to make plans for themselves to move out as soon as they are able to.

In comparison though, the film devotes scant time showing how Jeanette saves up, completes her education, moves out from West Virginia to New York and carves out a successful career there. It’s a missed opportunity to further flesh out her character’s burgeoning ability to trump adversity as she matures. In her adulthood, the parents continue to be insufferable on several occasions (Rex challenges his prospective son-in-law David to an ungracious match of arm wrestling; Rose Mary has no qualms being a hypocrite by criticising her daughter’s bourgeois ways while eating lunch at her expense), so when a turn of events at the end attempts to persuade us to give them a free pass in the name of love and forgiveness, we struggle with the question – should we really?

And yet, strangely enough, for all of its critical flaws, this reviewer enjoyed the movie. Part of this is due to the strength of its cast. Larson’s performance as Jeanette is stirring, infusing her role with a steely stoicism and understated ferocity befitting of the latter’s complicated personal history. Chandler Head and Ella Anderson (particularly Anderson) are terrific as the younger versions of Jeanette, as are the entire ensemble playing her siblings from youth to adulthood. Watts isn’t particularly outstanding as Rose Mary, but that’s in part because her role has been written to take a backseat to that of Rex. It’s indeed Harrelson who shines through the most as the grossly imperfect, obstinate father figure, navigating both the hardened and softer aspects of his character with visible panache.

At the end of the day, there’s still something admirable about Jeanette’s ability to love her father and her adoration for his ability to dream, even if he’s portrayed as someone who’s immensely difficult to love. There’s an emotional truth about familial love, and it manages to radiate beyond the murkiness of the film’s uneven adaptation. Nobody is really perfect anyway, some possibly more deeply flawed than others, but insofar as it is possible to love our family unconditionally for who they are, then maybe there’s    

Movie Rating:

(This uneven adaptation of a coming-of-age story lacks grit; however, strong performances from its cast and its universal theme about how love redeems a frayed father-child relationship should still strike a chord.)

Review by Tan Yong Chia Gabriel

Tired of re listening to old hits during your ride? If you were travelling from one end of Singaporeto the other, this album will provide you with about half an hour of decent road trip music. If you were driving, the fact that this soundtrack stems from the third instalment of Disney/ Pixar’s franchise (Cars, Cars 2) makes the experience sweeter!

Kicking off the 29 minute CD is Dan Auerbach’s original song from the animated feature “Run That Race”. Auerbach, who is also American rock band The Black Keys’ frontman, croons a tune that is true to Disney’s spirit of never giving up and always trying your best. A sample of the lyrics says it all: “I feel discouraged and I got myself/ But you know you can't blame it on nobody else/ Only you know where it is/ You belong, sing along’ We gotta run that race”. 

The other original song is American singer ZZ Ward’s aptly titled “Ride”. There is a nice retro feel to this tune which plays over the movie’s end credits. It is a track that you will find yourself re visiting and putting it on loop. The infectious melody also makes this song the most radio friendly track on the album.

The inclusion of two instrumental tracks by country singer songwriter Brad Paisley is a thoughtful decision from the producers. You will love the electronic guitar arrangements, especially in “Thunder Hollow Breakdown” where guitar riffs capture the excitement of the demolition derby sequence.

Elsewhere, there are covers by James Bay(“Kings Highway”), Andra Day (“Glory Days”), Jorge Blanco (“Drive My Car”) and Lea DeLaria (“Freeway of Love”). Another detail we love - DeLaria, who Is best known for playing Big Boo in the TV series Orangeis the New Black, voices the intimidating demolition derby Miss Fritter in the movie.    

It’s probably a marketing decision, but we would have adored the soundtrack even more if it contained Randy Newman’s score cues, which are compiled on a separate album. Quite a pity, because the CDs for Cars and Cars 2 managed to do it. 

ALBUM RATING:

Recommended Track: (4) Thunder Hollow Breakdown - Brad Paisley

Review by John Li

Genre: Horror
Director: Adam Robitel
Cast: Lin Shaye, Angus Sampson, Leigh Whannell, Josh Stewart, Caitlin Gerard
Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins
Rating: PG13 (Horror)
Released By: Sony Pictures Releasing International 
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 4 January 2018

Synopsis: The creative minds behind the hit Insidious trilogy return for Insidious: The Last Key. In the supernatural thriller, which welcomes back franchise standout Lin Shaye as Dr. Elise Rainier, the brilliant parapsychologist faces her most fearsome and personal haunting yet: in her own family home. The film is written by co-creator Leigh Whannell (Saw), who wrote the trilogy and directed Chapter 3; produced by Insidious regulars Jason Blum (The Purge series, Get Out), Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity) and co-creator James Wan (The Conjuring, Furious 7); and directed by series newcomer Adam Robitel (The Taking of Deborah Logan).

Movie Review:

Few horror franchises have found life beyond their third chapter, and “Insidious” proves no different.

Picking up right after the events of “Insidious: Chapter 3”, this fourth entry further (pun intended) explores the backstory of demonologist Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye), who was murdered in a memorable twist at the end of the first film. Here, Elise is first introduced as a young girl living in a foreboding two-storey house on the outskirts of a New Mexico prison in 1952 where her stern father (Josh Stewart) works as a prison guard. Turns out that Elise already had a gift (or curse, depending on which way you look at it) for seeing ghosts then, but when she disobeys her father’s order to deny her paranormal abilities, he locks her in the basement. It is there she first encounters this movie’s demon – a tall lanky beast with old-timey keys for fingers – and unknowingly unlocks a mysterious red door for the monster to cross over into our world.

Back in the present day, Elise receives a phone call from a stranger who asks for her help with the ghosts in his house. That house turns out to be her childhood home, and despite her initial reservations at literally revisiting past demons, she eventually musters up the courage to confront what she recognises she had previously unleashed. It helps that she isn’t alone; thanks to the events in the last movie, she is now accompanied by a pair of dopey sidekicks Tucker (Angus Sampson) and Specs (Leigh Whannell). To be sure, their signature high-tech gizmos aren’t of much use (certainly much less than they were in the first two movies), so their presence is really as comic relief – like Tucker loves to repeat, “She’s psychic; we’re sidekick.”  

What distinguished “Insidious” from other haunted-house movies was its creation of ‘The Further’, a terrifying place between life and death that exists on a different realm from ours where evil spirits trapped not just the souls of the dead but also those who were able to project themselves astrally while asleep. Elise was established to be one such individual, and it isn’t reasonable that she would quickly return to ‘The Further’ in order to seek out the entity which had terrorised her and is terrorising the house’s current inhabitant as well as the spirits she sees around the property. But Whannell, who had written every one of the “Insidious” movies, has other intentions; in fact, the middle act sees Elise come face-to-face with a different real-life horror, which while well-intentioned, is not nearly as developed as it needs to be and is hardly as interesting as the ghouls of ‘The Further’. Only in the final act does Elise finally return to that purgatory, but that homecoming is over too fast, too soon and too conveniently, almost as if it were simply an afterthought to form a narrative bridge into the first movie.

Even though the earlier ‘Insidious’ films had similarly spare scripts, they benefited from the taut direction of James Wan, who knew how to build perfectly good scares with icy dread. Unfortunately, series newcomer Adam Robitel doesn’t quite have the same knack. Not only is he able to generate the same atmosphere as Wan did, Robitel often betrays his own lack of confidence by resorting to the sort of jump-cuts which quickly tire out. This being his sophomore feature, he also lacks the experience to properly smooth over the rough edges of Whannell’s writing – in particular, the parts intended to be poignant, such as Elise’s estrangement from her skittish younger brother Christian (Bruce Davison), come off feeling contrived and sit awkwardly with the rest of the parts designed to frighten.

Ultimately, it is Shaye who holds the rickety film together, portraying Elise with just the right balance of vulnerability and fearlessness. While it may seem opportunistic that the “Insidious” series goes down the same road as “The Conjuring” (by using the same parapsychologist(s) across its entries), Shaye very much holds her own as the film’s septuagenarian heroine. That said, it is not quite nearly enough to reinvigorate the franchise itself, which seems imprisoned in its own creative limits and cannot quite go any further (that’s another pun, fully intended). Perhaps its title is ominous of its fate, and even if ‘The Last Key’ isn’t the last we hear of “Insidious”, then the next chapter better have a much more compelling raison d'être. 

Movie Rating:

(Just as, if not worse, than the previous entry, this fourth chapter confirms that life is fast running out of the "Insidious" franchise)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Fantasy/Romance
Director: Zhao Xiaoding, Anthony LaMolinara
Cast: Liu Yifei, Yang Yang, Luo Jin, Yan Yikuan, Li Chun, Gu Xuan, Peng Zisu
Runtime: 1 hr 49 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 24 August 2017

Synopsis: Based on the best-selling fantasy novel Three Lives Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms, ONCE UPON A TIME is a story of epic battles, deep passion and the powerful forces that drive mortals and gods alike toward revenge, loyalty and eternal love. Bai Qian, a goddess and monarch from the Heavenly Realms, is sent to the mortal world to undergo a trial to become a High Goddess. There, she meets Ye Hua, with whom she falls in love and marries. When an old enemy reappears in her lift, everything she holds dear is threatened.

Movie Review:

Movies that have mass appeal around the world might not actually generate a buzz in the massive China market. Similarly, what actually works for the China market might not work for the rest of the world. Once Upon A Time is one such title that belongs to the latter. This fantasy thriller has so much going on that it is probably incomprehensible to the general audience who just want a silly fun time in the multiplexes. 

Within the first ten minutes, we are treated to a generous dosage of countless characters ranging from immortals to creatures that could transfigure from human to animal form at will to locations that range from one heavenly realm to another. It’s no doubt an epic fantasy that could rival The Lord of the Rings but unfortunately just like the recent Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, the audiences do not have the luxury to indulge in the lush story instead we are given a much scale-down and hurried screen adaptation of the Chinese novel, the mouthful Three Lives Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms.

Anyway the themes of the story happened to be karma and reincarnation although the watered down story is more about the tragic romance between a thousand year Nine-Tail Fox Goddess, Bai Qian (Liu Yifei) and the Heavenly Crown Prince, Ye Hua (Yang Yang). We shall not delve into the complicated love life of Bai Qian and Ye Hua except to say that no matter how many times Bai Qian reincarnated herself (irregardless as the mortal Susu or immortal Bai Qian), she ends up falling back in love with Ye Hua. Then there is the Demon Emperor Qin Cang lurking in the background waiting to be resurrected to create havoc in the Heavenly realm. 

Despite three credited writers and two directors at the helm, famed cinematographer Zhao Xiaoding (The Great Wall, Coming Home) and special-effects guru Anthony LaMolinara (Spider-Man 2), Once Upon A Time struggles to tell a coherent story that is filled with multiple muddling timeline and flashbacks. It’s too hard to differentiate the past and the present and to rub salt to the wound, the excruciating one-note performances by Liu Yifei and Yang Yang doesn’t help things either. When a child actor by the name of Peng Zisu (who plays the son of Bai Qian and Ye Hua) is much more entertaining as a comic relief character, you know the story is in deep trouble.

But not all is lost in Once Upon A Time. The dazzling CGI, which obviously require numerous hardworking CG artists for the post-production work, is very much an achievement by itself. The backdrops look liked hand-drawn Chinese paintings, the sets meticulously detailed and the costumes amazingly tailored. Zhao who over the years has served as acclaimed director Zhang Yimou’s regular cinematographer has indeed inherited his talent for visual. The overall CGI standard is more than decent especially a rousing battle with a strange gigantic creature. Jack Ma’s Alibaba Pictures outfit and the rest of the 20 or more co-production companies have indeed spare no expenses on the technical aspects, it’s a pity they forgot to add some eye-popping effects to the dreary plotting.     

Movie Rating:

(Once Upon A Time is liked a prolonged music video, it’s nice to look at but nevertheless an empty spectacle that never really touches your heart)

Review by Linus Tee

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Takashi Shimizu
Cast: Hideaki Takizawa, Daiki Arioka, Mugi Kadowaki, Hiroyuki Onoue, Aoba Kawai, Momoko Tanabe, Haruto Nakano, Hyunri, Takashi Yamanaka, Ken Yoshizawa, Naomi Nishida
Runtime: 1 hr 51 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Disturbing Scenes)
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website:

Opening Day: 14 September 2017

Synopsis: A suburban town is shaken by a series of mysterious child disappearances, and suspicious adult deaths. A rumor begins to spread on the internet that any adult who suddenly encounters a “returned child” will die mysteriously three days later. Local newspaper reporter Shunya Ezaki refuses to believe that children are killing adults, and begins to investigate the truth behind the strange deaths. Meanwhile, Shunyaʼs girlfriend and nursery school worker Naomi Harada waits for the mother of a young boy to come and pick him up, but day turns to night and there is still no sign of her, leaving Naomi with no choice but to look after the boy herself. Before long, they are stalked by a shadowy figure, the “Kodomo Tsukai” Eventually, the boy goes missing. This turns out to be only the opening act of a horrific ordeal for Shunya and Naomi, whose fates are sealed when they cross paths with the Kodomo Tsukai.

Movie Review:

Children, can be creepy. With their beguiling ways and cherubic faces, they intensify horror when gurgle becomes growl and smile becomes sneer. This formula has kept classics going - think Children of the Corn or The Omen - and in Japan, director Takashi Shimiau has been terrifying audience with Toshio, the mewling boy from Juon.

With Kodomo Tsukai, Shimiau attempts to continues his reign, twisting the already-dark Pipe Piper folklore into a tale of vengeance and abuse.

Reporter Shunya Ezaki (Daiki Arioka) is trying to investigate a spate of adult deaths that are linked with temporary disappearances. An urban folklore soon spreads, along with a song that the children who reappear, chant to. Within the song, a “Tommy” name is dropped and the mystery begins.

Ezaki’s girlfriend Naomi Harada (Mugi Kadowaki), meanwhile, is having her own bizarre encounters. At the nursery she is working at, a child’s mother goes missing. She decides to let the child Ren take refuge in her apartment for one night, to which he quickly bonds to her as a surrogate.

When authorities find the dead mother and take Ren away, Naomi soon sees vision of a black man, the Kodomo Tsukai (Hideaki Takizawa), and discovers the truth of the link between the children, their dead parents and the mysterious figure.

There is a good story here. Topics like child abuse and trauma are toyed around with, with a leading figure whose motives are indiscernible. Unfortunately, it caves in upon itself, laden by an affected manipulation that makes the film tedious.

He throws in plenty of motivations here - good ones even, but Shimiau’s effect to do his deft “are-they-evil-or-are-they-victims” flips are frustrating. In the end, it gets so inconsistent, it just collapses into a pile of bewilderment and annoyance. When the final tussle happens but ends with a character hugging an unlikely another, you will feel completely flummoxed.

It would seem that Shimiau not only has a fascination for kids, but cats as well. Toshio from Juon has always drawn as many scares as he has chuckles. The reason for this - his meowing. To this day, I’m not sure if I should run or scratch his chin.

In Kodomo Tsukai, the black figure will wield several props that won’t look out of place in an anime. For some weird reason, every action is accompanied by the wailing of a cat. This is literally caterwauling, folks. The reason for this is never explained, and the sounds make the character more clown than nightmare, which although could serve a purpose, is more baffling than enigmatic.

When the story revealed the whole background, I felt completely cheated. Like, I-can-see-the-ventriloquist's-mouth-moving kind of cheated. With such a rich subject matter at hand, the folklore origin is such a cliche, it’s almost offensive. I was a little surprised by how amateurish that segment felt.

Even though Kodomo Tsukai has a few good creepy moments, courtesy of the kids, this is barely a horror film. Shimiau created complex and terrible universes for Juon, but completely dropped the ball on this one. And gosh, that tune gets really old after a while.

Movie Rating:

(The topics of child abuse gives birth to a terrible folklore, and like missing its parent, this film feels neglected in treatment and direction to give a poor horror showing)

Review by Morgan Awyong

Genre: CG Animation
Director: Cal Brunker
Cast: Will Arnett, Katherine Heigl, Maya Rudolph, Bobby Moynihan, Gabriel Iglesias, Jeff Dunham, Peter Stormare, Bobby Cannavale, Isabela Moner, Jackie Chan
Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: Golden Village Pictures 
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 9 September 2017

Synopsis: Surly Squirrel (Will Arnett) and the gang are back. We are once again in Oakton where the evil mayor has decided to bulldoze Liberty Park and build a dangerous amusement park in its place. Surly and his ragtag group of animal friends band together to save their home, defeat the mayor, and take back the park.

Movie Review:

Wait – is that the voice of the crime fighting vigilante from The Lego Batman Movie (2017) we are hearing?

Nope, what we are seeing on screen is a Surly, purple squirrel who is also considered a superhero by his peers. You see, in the first Nut Job movie, this rodent saved park animals from a terrible food shortage that, ahem, he unintentionally caused. And this somewhat unlikeable protagonist is voiced by Will Arnett, who happens to portray the caped crusader in The Lego Movie (2014) and its spin off feature starring Lego Batman. 

Back to this family friendly animated flick directed by Cal Brunker. What trouble is the cocky squirrel going to cause in this sequel? Who gave the go ahead for the production anyway? Didn’t the 2014 movie, which scored an approval rating of 10% on Rotten Tomatoes, fare badly with the critics?

The movie did make a decent $120.8 million at the box office against its $42.8 million budget, which probably prompted the green lighting of this Canadian South Korean co production. Bringing along with it are its voice actors Arnett, as well as Katherine Heigl (Unforgettable) as a caricatured female squirrel who knows what’s good for the animals, Maya Rudolph (The Emoji Movie) as a pug who likes to lick others, Jeff Dunham (Smurfs: The Lost Village) as a mole and Gabriel Iglesias (Norm of the North) as a groundhog.

The first feature movie was based on Peter Lepeniotis' 2005 short animated film Surly Squirrel, and it managed to stretch for a good 86 minutes. The sequel increases the runtime by five minutes and we must say it must take quite an effort to extend an otherwise simple concept into a full length feature.

The plot is educational: a greedy town mayor threatens to tear down the animals’ home by bulldozing his way through the park to build a new amusement centre. The furry animals, under the leadership of Surly, must find ways to protect their home. In the one and a half hours, you get life lessons learnt from a dozen other animated movies about teamwork, integrity, and all those things which would otherwise be boring printed in textbooks.

More things are happening in this sequel, but it still doesn’t bring anything new for the genre. The character design doesn’t make you sit up, and the predictable storyline isn’t going to win the movie any fans as well. However, kids may be duly entertained with the chatty characters going on and on about saving their home. 

Although there are few jokes which adults would appreciate, there are a few chuckle worthy moments. Heigl is dying to break out into a song about why living in nature is good, and Isabela Moner’s (Transformers: The Last Knight) voice is creepily apt for the spoilt brat she voices. Cinephiles will also love the inclusion of voice actors like The Secret Life of Pets’ Bobby Moynihan (as the mercenary mayor), John Wick: Chapter 2’s Peter Stomare (as a deranged animal control officer) and Ant Man’s Bobby Canavale (as a French bulldog with a heart of gold).

Even more entertaining is Jackie Chan’s involvement – the Asian superstar voices the leader of a street mouse gang. He teaches them the art of kung fu, and spouts inspirational dialogue to amusing effect. This smart marketing move is the saving grace of the movie, and we can’t wait for Chan to be back on screen as Master Wu in The Lego Ninjago Movie. 

Movie Rating:

(There are some funny bits in this animated feature targeted at kids, and the best moments are those with Jackie Chan - everyone loves Jackie Chan, right?)

Review by John Li

SYNOPSIS: Based on the famous Japanese manga written by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, Death Note follows a high school student who comes across a supernatural notebook, realizing it holds within it a great power; if the owner inscribes someone’s name into it while picturing their face, he or she will die. Intoxicated with his new godlike abilities, the young man begins to kill those he deems unworthy of life.

MOVIE REVIEW:

If you’re already biased against a Western adaptation of Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata’s bestselling Japanese comic book, then you should not even bother with this Netflix-backed film. Oh yes, we are quite sure purists will not be pleased by Adam Wingard’s interpretation of the manga series that has seen five big-screen interpretations, which despite being immensely watchable from start from finish, has its fair share of flaws that will undoubtedly be picked on by its fans.

The setting is now Seattle, and Light (Nat Wolff) a smart but socially isolated high-schooler who spends his time doing his schoolmates’ homework in exchange for cash. He is at the schoolyard watching his crush Mia (Margaret Qualley) and her fellow cheerleaders practise their routines when suddenly the clouds darken and an ancient leather-bound notebook falls from the sky. It isn’t clear why Light was chosen or why he chooses to keep the notebook for that matter, but before he can make it safely back to the school building as the skies open, he is knocked cold by a bully whom he stumbles upon picking on another kid.

And so Light has his first potential target, a teenage do no-gooder who doesn’t care as much about the fact that he has been held back twice in the same grade than the next kid ripe for the picking (on). Even for those who know how it works, Wingard’s setup of the rules of the notebook is intriguing and exciting to watch, in particular because Wolff successfully channels the curiosity, trepidation and sheer thrill of someone realising the tremendous power that has just fallen into his hands. There is also Ryuk of course, the ‘shinigami’ death god voiced with crackling relish by Willem Dafoe, whose sardonic one-liners give the film added bite especially when taunting Light to try out the powers of the notebook.

Light’s maiden ‘kill’ turns out to be a gruesome decapitation befitting of the ‘Final Destination’ movies, i.e. a string of random accidents that build into a chain reaction which eventually result in a grisly end for the intended victim. More so than any of its Japanese counterparts, this ‘Death Note’ is not for the faint-hearted – his next target impales himself on a steak knife while at a fine dining restaurant and his subsequent one is run over by a SWAT vehicle in broad daylight. Wingard executes these executions with style, and those who love their violence with a fair share of gore will no doubt delight at the gloriously lurid death scenes.

Unfortunately, these flashes of gory brilliance cannot quite disguise the narrative shortcomings in Charley Parlapanides, Vlas Parlapanides and Jeremy Slater’s script. Without quite setting the stage for his surrender to godlike power, Light suddenly embraces his newfound vigilante powers by writing the names of criminals from his dad’s computer database as well as international terrorists on the news inside the notebook and attributing the kills to a ‘Lord Kira’. Without much sleuthing too, Light’s arch-nemesis L (Lakeith Stanfield) suddenly deduces that the real killer is none other than Light, choosing then to confront Light in his own house and forcing Light to go on the run with Mia.

Whereas the Japanese versions sketched a gripping cat-and-mouse between Light and L, that here hardly passes muster, in turn making L’s signature eccentricities – whether is it crouching on chairs, or hiding his face under his favourite black turtleneck outfit, or sucking on candies non-stop – appear unnecessary and worse caricatured. Oh yes, both come off equally petulant and childish; and while that may be the intention for Light, it certainly can’t be for L, especially when we are asked to believe that the local police would simply cede their authority and resources at his disposal so readily. More compelling is the dynamic between Light and Mia, the latter (more than L) the wild card whose own fiendish motivations threaten to undermine Light’s own as the movie progresses.

There is yet another dynamic that proves more interesting than that between Light and L, and that is the relationship between Light and his police detective dad James (Shea Whigham). In a shrewd departure from the source material, Light is given an additional backstory that has him frustrated by the law for not convicting the driver of the vehicle who killed his mother in a hit-and-run a couple of years ago, which sets him on his path of increasingly perverted justice. Father and son will eventually reconcile all right, but it is nonetheless a nice poignant angle that differentiates this big-screen adaptation from its predecessors.

Like we said at the start, ‘Death Note’ does have its fair share of flaws, most notably a rushed narrative that seems to prioritise pacing over plotting and character development. But there’s no denying that it remains engaging through and through – not just for those who haven’t yet encountered the ‘Death Note’ pop-culture phenomenon, but also for those who are not inherently biased against a Westernised take on this Japanese creation. If you ask us, there’s been plenty of culture appropriation going on long before we started to be so allergic to it, and if you’re just looking for some good-old edgy entertainment, you can do a lot worse than this stylishly macabre movie.  

Review by Gabriel Chong

TRAILER WATCH - X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX Posted on 02 Mar 2019 Could 'X-Men: Dark Phoenix' spell the end of Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique? In the latest X-Men franchise trailer, Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) seems to literally blow away Mystique, and if writer-director Simon Kinberg's words on that pivotal scene are anything to go by, it seems like she may very well not survive that encounter. Written and directed by Simon Kinberg, who p ... more

Genre: Comedy
Director: Jason Kim
Cast: Park Seo-jun, Kang H-neul, Sung Dong-il, Park Ha-seon
Runtime: 1 hr 49 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures 
Official Website:

Opening Day: 7 September 2017

Synopsis: An overzealous young police academy student Gi-jun (PARK Seo-jun) and a by-the-book police academy student Hee-yeol (KANG Ha-neul). Two best friends, out on a leave, witness a kidnapping by chance. As the sole witnesses to the crime, they report to the police immediately as they’ve learned in school. But thanks to complicated red-tape and lack of evidence, the investigation seems to be going nowhere. Desperate, the duo decides to take matters into their own hands where they run into unexpected twists and turns.

Movie Review:

South Korea has been dishing out finely polished film productions in recent years, going big-scale from sets to budgets. It’s good to see someone in Asia carrying the torch in this region, as other giants like Hong Kong, China and India struggle to catch the wind in their filmmaking sails.

Midnight Runners is South Korea’s latest offering and unlike recent cousin The Battleship Island, which boasts massive ensemble casting, explosive effects and lavish score and sets, is a lot more restrained in scale and premise. That said, director Jason Kim has done a magnificent job with the unpretentious plot. In fact, Midnight Runners is quite riveting.

The story of good-vs-evil takes place when two police recruits become unlikely buddies. Gi-jun (Park Seo-jun) and Hee-yeol (Kang Ha-neul) applies for a night’s leave from their training and comes across a kidnapping. This soon leads to a deeper network of body trafficking that has the two sandwiched between the reality of the victims dying if they follow protocol, or risking expulsion if they break red tape.

With a vision to keep this a fun movie first and foremost, Kim keeps it so with his deft pacing and script, even with the dark topic and moralistic struggle. It’s never heavy handed or preachy, so it quickly draws viewers in on its relatability. Kim also knows where his money is. He cleverly centres the film around the two leads, and by casting talented and fresh-faced Park and Kang, seals the deal and captures the attention of the audience for the whole running.

Speaking of running, there’s a lot of it. The leggy Park and Kang dash through the streets of South Korea in peak winter at full pelt, away from gangsters, policemen, citizens alike. The two actors even commented that they “really had it tough”. The movie’s action scenes replaces cliche car chases for plenty of the full-on sprints from the actors, and it really works.

“I was freezing and out of breath. I felt like I hit a wall,” Park shares. Kang adds on that, “Seo-jun and I are not the kind of people who talk about how tough things are, but this time, we kept saying that ‘we really had it rough”. Good going guys, because it paid off big time.

The film keeps up the tempo not only with action, but endearing scenes between the two bumbling lads. They are big-hearted and passionate, especially the athletic Gi-jun, but are constantly foiled by their good intentions. In one scene, Hee-yeol descends into a ear-cleaning parlour while Gi-jun stands guard. A man slurping down noodles and a sausage in a convenience store windows opposite manages to distract the insatiable Gi-jun, which opens the opportunity for two policemen to check on the parlour. His solution? Cuss at themand start running.

Hee-yeol, being the brainiac, is less strapping but still red-blooded. He tends to hoodwink Gi-jun into doing his bidding while his friend obediently bows to his cleverness. When the duo gets strung up by a triad, Hee-yeol spits on the hair of his friend to wake him, only to tell him that he’s bleeding when Gi-jun complains of something wet dripping down his face. Hilarious brotherly camaraderie.

The best thing really, is that even though the character quirks are not as pronounced, it comes across refreshing because it doesn’t reduce the actors to mere caricature. They come across believable across all sequences, so you get fully invested in their journey and struggles.

“The jovial friendship of the lead actors is buttressed by the fast-paced plot and powerful action. The youthful energy and initiative that comes with the whole package is sure to perk up the movie experience,” says the director.

Finally something delivered as promised.

Movie Rating:

(It’s jaunty, it’s funny, it’s stellar. Unassuming yet completely enjoyable action film from Director Jason Kim which truly delivers)

Review by Morgan Awyong

Genre: Drama
Director: Marc Webb
Cast: Callum Turner, Kate Beckinsale, Jeff Bridges, Pierce Brosnan, Cynthia Nixon, Kiersey Clemons, Tate Donovan
Runtime: 1 hr 29 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Some Coarse Language And Drug Use)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 14 September 2017

Synopsis: Thomas Webb (Callum Turner), the son of a publisher and his artistic wife, has just graduated from college and is trying to find his place in the world. Moving from his parents’ Upper West Side apartment to the Lower East Side, he befriends his neighbor W.F. (Jeff Bridges), a shambling alcoholic writer who dispenses worldly wisdom alongside healthy shots of whiskey. Thomas’ world begins to shift when he discovers that his long-married father (Pierce Brosnan) is having an affair with a seductive younger woman (Kate Beckinsale). Determined to break up the relationship, Thomas ends up sleeping with his father’s mistress, launching a chain of events that will change everything he thinks he knows about himself and his family.

Movie Review:

Intriguing as it may sound, the title of ‘500 Days of Summer’ director Marc Webb’s latest coming-of-age tale didn’t come as a stroke of inspiration to him or to his screenwriter Allan Loeb; rather, both have Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel to thank for it, whose 1970 song was written by the former when the latter left him in New York to go shoot a movie in Mexico.

Having said that, we’re not quite sure either Simon or Garfunkel would have approved the use of their song title for this bland character study of an idealistic but disaffected aspiring writer Thomas Webb (Callum Turner) in his early 20s who discovers that his publishing scion of a father Ethan (Pierce Brosnan) is cheating on his mother (Cynthia Nixon) and decides to embark on his own affair with Dad’s 40-something year-old mistress Johanna (Kate Beckinsale).

Oh yes, that in essence is the sort of dramatic crisis that our titular protagonist Thomas has to sort out within a surprisingly brief 89-minute film set against a charmingly cultured, if neurotic, backdrop of Manhattan. Besides the Thomas-Ethan-Johanna love triangle, two other secondary relationships come to the fore – first, that between Thomas and his mysterious and nosy new neighbour W.F. Gerald (Jeff Bridges); and second, that between Thomas and his friend Mimi (Kiersey Clemons), who starts off as the target of his romantic affections until he begins an ill-advised tryst with Johanna.

If you’re familiar with any such similar feel-good dramedies for that matter, you’ll probably guess that the whole web of relationships will unravel at some point with a marriage proposal, more likely one between Ethan and Johanna. You’ll probably also guess that young and emotional as he is, Thomas will feel a deep sense of indignation and even jealousy at this turning point, leading to a reckoning before a reconciliation that will leave everyone better off than where they started. And true enough, without revealing any spoilers, that is exactly what happens in the third act, although the questionable ethical choices that Thomas makes as well as the lack of definition to his character outside of these choices undercuts not just how much we understand his motivations and emotions but also how much we empathise with his predicament.

Furthermore, if you’re familiar with Loeb’s dramas (such as last winter’s dud ‘Collateral Beauty’), you’ll be expecting some sort of twist in the third act, which true enough plays out as a revelation of the connection between Thomas and W.F. – hint, the latter has been in Thomas’ life far longer than just the time they have been next-door neighbours. Anyhow, the lack of build-up to this point makes it come off even more unconvincing, notwithstanding Bridges’ delightful embodiment of the eccentric life-lesson-dispensing type whose manner and mannerisms he’s perfected in numerous other such movies before.

But more fundamentally, there is little compelling reason throughout the entire movie why Thomas’ tribulations are worth a story in and of itself. To be fair, Woody Allen’s comedy-dramas are equally guilty of that, though their sheer entertainment value often justifies their very existence. On the other hand, there is neither enough comedy or drama to make this more than a bland, slight and perhaps even artificial story of a young man coming into his own, especially given the leaps of faith that we are asked to take with respect to both plot and character.

Indeed, the fact that you’ll likely remember not the movie itself but the Simon and Garfunkel song that turns up in the middle of the second act just goes to show how substantial the film itself is. The actors and their performances are certainly watchable, if not enjoyable, but the material itself is hardly worth their calibre. They – as well as Simon and Garfunkel – certainly deserve better. 

Movie Rating:

(A great cast and a beautiful song in search of a better movie, 'The Only Living Boy in New York' is an unsatisfying character study that lacks depth, purpose and even authenticity)

Review by Gabriel Chong