SYNOPSIS: When Cole stays up past his bedtime, he discovers that his hot babysitter is part of a satanic cult that will stop at nothing to keep him quiet. 

MOVIE REVIEW:

Imagine ‘Home Alone’ with a hot babysitter who turns out to be the leader of a satanic cult, and you’ll get the idea just what ‘The Babysitter’ is.

Intended through and through as a horror comedy that you’re never supposed to take seriously, this low-key soon-to-be cult classic is one of the most fun we’ve had watching a genre flick in recent time.

Part of the fun is discovering its nasty twists and turns, so we’ll be brief enough here to let you find out for yourself just how wonderfully bizarre it gets. Our protagonist is 12-year-old teenage nerd Cole (Judah Lewis), whose timidity goes from bullies to needles to driving cars to just about anything remotely dangerous. The opening scenes establish Cole’s circumstances – his crush on the girl-next-door Melanie (Emily Alyn Lind), his parents’ weekend (read: sex) therapy intended to save their failing marriage, and last but not least his super-hot and super-cool (she knows all her pop-culture references from ‘Alien’ to ‘Star Trek’ to ‘The Godfather Part II’) babysitter Bee (Samara Weaving).

On one of his bus trips to school, Melanie suggests that Cole stay up past his bedtime to find out just what Bee does in his house after he falls asleep, speculating that someone as attractive as Bee would probably invite her friends over for an orgy. The truth however is much, much worse than that – in fact, Bee happens to be the mastermind of a cult which intends to use Cole’s supposedly ‘pure’ blood to make the dark spells in her evil book come to life. The members of her cult are deliberate stock types, including the shirtless football jock Max (Robbie Armell), the bimbotic cheerleader Allison (Bella Thorne), the freaky chick Sonya (Hana Mae Lee), the ‘black’ jokester John (Andrew Bachelor) and the nerdier-than-Cole nerd Samuel (Doug Haley).

Over the course of that fateful night, heads will be stabbed, boobs will be shot, eyeballs will be gouged, jugulars will be severed and plenty of blood will be spilled. The gore is obviously calculated to go completely over-the-top, so those squeamish are best advised to get something to cover their eyes. But there is method in McG’s wackiness, and you’ll admire just how deftly he and writer Brian Duffeld play on conventional horror tropes for maximum laughs. There is utter self-awareness in how each one of the supporting characters play up their archetypal roles; ditto the occasional use of big text to describe just what a certain character is thinking – for instance, when Cole first witnesses the ritual from on top of the stairs, his eyes widen in disbelief and the words ‘WHAT THE F**K’ appear over his face. It borders on parody all right, but that’s the very point of this exercise.

That said, there is a sweet and surprisingly sentimental centre at the heart of the chaos, and that is thanks to Weaving and Lewis. Both have an almost too-cool sensibility between them that keeps you rooting for them, so much so that the ending actually ends up touching a rather tender spot even as things get awfully complicated between them. Weaving doesn’t appear as much in the movie as we’d hoped (especially the parts when Lewis’ character Cole is fighting the rest of her friends one by one by himself) but Lewis ably holds his own as the terrified teenager who proves his resourcefulness and smarts as he takes on the invaders on his home turf.

Honestly, we’d never expected to like ‘The Babysitter’ as much as we did. It may look like some campy horror, it may look like yet another product of McG’s excesses, but there is both method and even genius to the madness. It also breezes by in less than one-half hours, so all that humour, scares, tension and bloodletting is compressed into a fast, furious and furiously entertaining roller-coaster ride. If you’re looking to be amused and scared at the same time this Halloween, then this little unassuming classic-in-the-making will do the tricking-and-treating just fine. .  

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Animation
Director: Jayson Thiessen
Cast: Emily Blunt, Kristin Chenoweth, Liev Schreiber, Michael Peña, Sia, Taye Diggs, Uzo Aduba, Zoe Saldana
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Rating: G
Released By: Golden Village Pictures 
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 2 November 2017

Synopsis: A new dark force threatens Ponyville, and the Mane 6 - Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity - embark on an unforgettable journey beyond Equestria where they meet new friends and exciting challenges on a quest to use the magic of friendship to save their home!

Movie Review:

If you’re reading this, chances are that you’re a parent who’s either wondering just how bored you’ll be in the movie or just how engaged your children will be. The good news is that your kids will love it; the not-so-great news is that you’ll probably be checking your watch in the meantime, unless of course you count yourself among one of the ‘bronies’ and ‘pegasisters’ who form a cultish fandom around the animated ‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic’ animated series.

To be fair, this big-screen adaptation is aimed squarely at its fanbase, who can tell you by the colour of these pastel ponies just who is Princess Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy. These are the ‘Mane Six’, who in this adventure set out to save the Kingdom of Equestria from the Storm King and his army led by fallen pony Tempest. The latter has arrived just as Princess Twilight Sparkle is fretting over preparations for the annual Friendship Festival, and in order to save the other three princesses, the Mane Six will journey to the kingdom of the hippogriffs to ask for its queen’s help.

It’s a simple story stuffed with several action-packed set-pieces – one involves a feline con man named Capper who lures the ponies to his home with wicked intentions; another involves a band of aerial parrot pirates led by Captain Celaeno; and another at an art nouveau undersea realm has Queen Nuvo of the hippogriffs as well as her daughter Princess Skystar. There are a couple of well-intentioned messages at the end of it all, including one about empathy (through the ostracism that Tempest has experienced since losing her ‘horn’) and another about (what else?) the enduring power of friendship.

As far as wholesome is concerned, parents needn’t worry at all, for director Jayson Thiessen (whose appropriate calling card is as the veteran of numerous ‘My Little Pony’ episodes) keeps it friendly for anyone from the age of three. To ensure that it never gets too dark for the kid demographic, Thiessen also inserts a couple of pop musical numbers by series composer Daniel Ingram, including one by Sia who voices a pony pop star named Princess Serenade that is supposed to be the main attraction at the Friendship Festival.

Truth be told, the voice cast of the Saturday-morning cartoons would probably have done fine for this feature-length episode, but the filmmakers have gone here to assemble a Dreamworks-worthy list of celebrities. That list includes Emily Blunt (as Tempest), Liev Schreiber (as the Storm King), Taye Diggs (as Capper), Zoe Saldana (as Celaeno), Kristin Chenoweth (as Skystar) and Tara Strong (as both Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash). None of the voice acting is particularly remarkable, but then again, with so many characters onscreen at the same time, there’s hardly enough time to get to know any single one of them beyond the immediate state of peril they are in.

We’ve probably already said more than we need to for this movie – like we've mentioned at the start, you’re either a fan yourself (in which case, this review is moot) or you’re bringing your kid who’s a fan (in which case, this review is also moot). We can’t quite say for the former whether this movie honours the tradition of the 100-plus episode animated series, but that’s not likely to deter you from seeing it anyways. For the latter, let’s just say that your kids will love it, and by extension, that’s all the reason you need to get a ticket for them this school holidays. 

Movie Rating:

(It will delight your kids - and that's probably all the reason you need to sit through this candy-coloured, feature-length extension of a Saturday-morning cartoon)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Fantasy
Director: Wong Jing, Billy Chung
Cast: Zheng Kai, Kitty Zhang Yu Qi, Evonne Hsieh, Mao Junjie, Law Kar Ying, Wong Cho Lam, Monica Chan
Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 23 November 2017

Synopsis: In the Xuanguang Temple resides a Buddhist monk with supernatural powers named Butong (Zheng Kai). One day, Butong’s mentor, Kong, is struck by lightning and realises that he is the reincarnation of Crouching Tiger Arhat, who came to the human world to give guidance to Butong. Butong was the original Golden Child, punished by God to experience life and death one hundred times as he broke a sacred rule by falling in love with another fairy, Jade (Zhang Yu Qi). While Golden Child’s memories were erased, Jade refused to forget their love and accumulated goodwill over one hundred reincarnations…

Movie Review:

For every gem like ‘Chasing the Dragon’, you’ll have to survive utter duds like ‘The Golden Monk’. That seems to be the pattern with Wong Jing, who is writer, producer and director of this overblown yet under-developed period fantasy drama cum romance. Pitched as an origin story to the folklore of Ji Gong, the Buddhist monk who is believed to possess supernatural powers which he used to help the poor and stand up to injustice, this origin tale marries cliched romance and screwball comedy to appalling effect. Oh yes, it is neither funny or romantic, coming across instead as a classic case of a toxic combination of bad screenwriting, terrible direction and pointless (bad) CGI bombast. It is as bad as the worst of them Wong Jing comedies, exacerbated because it has been suggested to be some sort of epic when it is all but an epic failure. 

A prologue that has absolutely no basis in history tells of a chaotic time in the Southern Song Dynasty when Hangzhou was beset with demonic sightings and therefore the so-called ‘professional exorcists’ industry. One such shaman is the incongruously named Mighty Murray (Law Kar-ying), who has been summoned by a husband-and-wife couple (Wong Cho-lam and Monica Chan) to subdue a vicious toad demon. Also along for the adventure is ace demon hunter Jade (Zhang Yuqi) and the unflappable Xuanguang Temple monk Butong (Zheng Kai), both of which prove indispensable in vanquishing the demon when it appears in full form and wrecks havoc upon not just the couple’s residence but also the very town they live in. Following that opening sequence, Mighty Murray is nowhere to be seen again (in case you’re wondering just how big a role Law has in the movie), leaving the rest of the movie in the hands of Butong and Jade.

As formula would have it, Butong and Jade were once a pair of lovers in heaven who broke the Celestial Dogma by falling in love with each other, thus damned to spend the next 1000 years apart from each other. Ninety-nine reincarnations later, Jade is that close to finding her long-lost love whom she knows as the Golden Child, while Butong is none-the-wiser because his memory has been wiped. What semblance of a narrative there is has Jade looking to kill the legendary one-eyed Tianshan Monster in order to use his eye to see just who the Golden Child is in this life, while a conveniently smitten Butong receives enlightenment from his master Kong (Jim Chim) about his true being. Their reunion is however threatened by the return of an ancient powerful demon known as the Nine-sea Dragon, who together with his daughters Spidey, Snakey and Kitty (yup, that’s Wong Jing for you), intend to usurp the throne by poisoning the Emperor and just so happens to need Jade’s pure spirit to do so.

It is hardly a secret that Wong Jing’s worst tendencies are his excesses; and though his last movie proved that with the right co-directing partner such tendencies might be reined in, his regular collaborator/ stand-in Billy Chung is hardly the one to do so. That explains why the definition of eternal romance here is some couple time between Butong and Jade next to a tree bearing the Millennium Peach fruit up in the clouds, or why the definition of funny is when Butong and a female warrior literally named ‘Lonely Undefeated’ (Evonne Hsieh) mock-challenge each other to transform into Marvel superheroes (Captain America, Thor and Hulk might all line up to collect royalties) before pulling an ‘Angry Bird’ on the Tianshan Monster. One part of the movie wants to be taken absolutely seriously, another is just calling for us to treat us like a Jeffrey Lau-Stephen Chow period parody – and while the two could still hypothetically belong in the same film, Wong Jing and Billy Chung are hardly the ones who can pull off such tricky tonal and thematic shifts back and forth.

Neither for that matter is Zheng Kai a qualified stand-in for Chow, who – if this were the 90s – would surely have been cast in the role of Butong. To his credit, Zheng Kai does his level best to channel Chow in several of the ‘mo-lei-tau’ scenes, but he doesn’t quite have the comedian’s comedic timing and expressiveness. His co-star Zhang Yuqi fares even worst – not only is her performance flat, it is often incomprehensible, though admittedly the fact that she might herself be confused sometimes whether she is supposed to play it straight or tongue-in-cheek. The supporting cast are similarly lackluster despite Hsieh and Chim’s efforts to ham up their respective characters, leaving one to wonder how Law would most certainly have been a lot more entertaining than Chim in the role of Butong’s master.

Even so, ‘The Golden Monk’ has much more serious flaws that not even Chow would have been able to redeem – the jokes are stale; tonally it is all over the place; and the action is a mess of bad CGI that has little regard for scale, continuity and realism. Honestly, the last wouldn’t have mattered so much if Wong Jing had gotten the first two right, but even in the comedy suite, he seems to have lost his creative spark. There are signs that the filmmakers had intended for this to be the start of a franchise, though we can’t see why anyone would be excited for a second chapter after this muddle. Like we said at the start, for every Wong Jing gem, you’ll have to survive a couple of duds in between. This is one of them (let’s hope his next collaboration with Donnie Yen isn’t another), so you’ll be advised to wait out till he gets his mojo back. 

Movie Rating:

(Wong Jing at his worst – slapdash scripting, slipshod direction and pointless CGI bombast – this period fantasy comedy is far from golden)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Drama
Director: Jay Roach
Cast: Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, John Lithgow, Allison Janney, Malcolm McDowell, Kate McKinnon
Runtime: 1 hr 49 mins
Rating: NC16 (Coarse Language and Sexual References)
Released By: Encore Films
Official Website: https://bombshell.movie

Opening Day: 30 January 2020

Synopsis: The Fox News playbook is turned on its head in this eye opening, irreverent and comically astute story of three heroic women who take on the network’s rampant culture of sexism and topple one of the world’s most powerful men, media giant Roger Ailes. The unfolding of this compelling showdown begins with three ambitious and remarkable women at three different stages of their careers. Their individual battles become headline news when their interweaving stories collide in one of the most salacious instances of corporate sexual harassment. In the spirit of THE BIG SHORT, it’s funny because it’s (mostly) true. And it’s frightening for the same reason.  

Movie Review:

Playing out one of the most important chapters - the prologue if you will - of the #MeToo movement, Bombshell drops us into the frenetic offices of Fox News to witness the buildup to the sexual harassment allegations levelled at media mogul Roger Ailes.

Director Jay Roach and writer Chartles Randolph doesn’t go full The Office on us, but with moments of acerbic cynicism, breaking of the fourth wall, and some intermittent handheld, roving camerawork, there’s an impressive handling of levity that doesn’t dilute the severity of the situation, yet keeps the story from veering into stuffy documentative or melodrama territory.

Bombshell is most definitely a commentary. It tackles the most difficult area of sexual harassment to naysayers - the reasoning. It lets us see, with a measure of objectivity - the many tiny cuts that lead to a final wound. It also explains why it is so difficult for women to sometimes come forward with these allegations, as they face threats, shaming and discreditation - sometimes even from fellow women.  

Roach approaches this three ways. Taking stewardship, is Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman). Unhappy with the increasing hostile environment and actions taken by Roger (John Lithgow) for her “feminist” opinions on air, the cunning host of Fox & Friends plans her exit, gathering with her damning evidence against her boss.

Then there’s Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron). The star anchor is a tour de force at every appearance, until her investigation into Trump’s bevy of demeaning comments to women led to her fall from grace for her right-wing viewers. She experiences a complete loss of support from her network, and questions her loyalty.

Robbie Margot is Kayla, the third aspect to the representation of manipulated women under the CEO’s mentorship. The aspiring ingenue is fueled by ambition, but also suppressed by fear, which eventually leads her down a path she regrets but ultimately changes.

Bombshell intercuts between the three, leading us down three varying responses to the harassment by Ailes. The fact that the three ladies worked in the same building and yet never came together until much later, shows how insidious and institutionalised the misogyny has become. And it is also through this that reveals to us how the journey of abuse starts small, and can be made complicit by the non-action of those in the environment through callous remarks or a willingness to look in the other direction.

This lack of crossover may seem to suggest a disjointed film with three arcs, but Roach inserts opportune meetings with fantastic skill to make them all the more powerful for their interactions. When Megyn confronts Kayla about the episodes, Kayla equally questions her on allowing this culture to continue - you see, even the victims sometimes are part of the problem, and that’s not an easy thing to say.

In one of the only scenes where the three women meet, they don’t even speak. And yet, that short elevator ride (used to great effect for the trailer) says nothing, and yet everything.

Bombshell may occasionally roam into realms of caricature - we only need to see so many shots of the ladies glancing over at their children to remind us they are doing this for the future generation - but absorbing performances by Theron, Margot and Lithgow keeps believability in check. A nod to the restrained but excellent use of subtle prosthetics throughout the film, transforming Theron and Lithgow to their real-life counterparts effectively.

The writing’s sharp. The acting magnetic. It’s easy to say #MeToo for this title.

Movie Rating:

(A compelling look into the #MeToo scandal that started it all, Roach brings in cynical humour and an eye for nuance to this film)

Review by Morgan Awyong

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SYNOPSIS: The getaway driver in a botched robbery puts his skills and smarts to the test when he receives shocking orders from an unknown caller. 

MOVIE REVIEW:

Set entirely over the course of one night, ‘Wheelman’ sees Frank Grillo’s eponymous character who is caught in the middle of a heist gone wrong. As lean and stripped-down as it gets, writer-director Jeremy Rush’s fast-paced thriller places the recently released ex-con largely behind the wheel of a BMW throughout its entire 82-minute duration, alternating between highly-charged phone calls from two different factions of the Boston underworld and high-speed vehicular chases with his enemies. It may not boast much by way of gratuitous action or violence, but it is still a gripping watch nonetheless, and a perfect star vehicle for the under-appreciated Grillo.

Wasting no time in setting up its premise, ‘Wheelman’ begins with Grillo picking up the getaway vehicle from an auto shop and fetching a pair of antagonistic criminals (one of them played by Shea Whigham) to a bank. Watching the robbers do their thing, he receives a mysterious call from someone claiming to be the person who put together the heist in the first place, instructing him to drive away once the thieves have deposited the loot in the trunk. He has no choice, the person on the phone tells him – his passengers were told to kill him once they reached the drop point. And so he does indeed speed off with more than $200,000 in the back of the car, but at the same time, refuses to play into the hands of this ‘out-of-area’ stranger who will probably end his life once he has the money too.

Instead, Grillo calls his increasingly dubious contractor Clayton (Garrett Dillahunt) for answers, finally confronting the latter by kidnapping him and demanding that he reveal just who ordered the job in the first place. It is then that Grillo realises the ‘shit’ he is in, and without revealing any spoilers, let’s just say that he finds himself unwittingly caught up in a turf war between two rivalling Boston mafia gangs, one of which he does owe his loyalty to for taking care of his wife and 13-year-old daughter Katie (Caitlin Carmichael) while serving time. Though she does seem like an unnecessary distraction at the start, Katie becomes an increasingly prominent and significant presence over the course of the night, entering the narrative in a perfectly organic way that also builds sympathy for Grillo’s character.

To his credit, Rush never forces the character development into the unfolding story; rather, he lets his titular protagonist come into his own slowly, both as a man caught up in a situation that he never wanted to be part of and as a father and husband trying to make things right with his estranged wife Jessica (Wendy Moniz) and Katie. It is a bold move to not have Grillo break out into stereotypical one-man action mode, and for the most part, Rush sustains the tempo and suspense of the movie through the tense conversations as well as the background action captured from around the POV of the vehicle. On his part, Grillo does his usual tough-guy act with more than the usual hint of vulnerability, striking just the right balance between grit and anxiety as he figures just how to put his world right again.

Comparisons will no doubt be made with Nicolas Winding Refy’s ‘Drive’ or Steven Knight’s ‘Locke’, but whatever similarities ‘Wheelman’ has with these two other pictures doesn’t diminish its own merits or the sheer sense of adrenaline that you’ll get from watching it. It is also worthwhile noting that this is Rush’s debut feature, and it is an admirable one indeed that elevates its B-movie conceit with some nice character work. As a final word, it may not belong so well on the big screen because it doesn’t have that many shootouts or action sequences for that matter, but as a Netflix title, it is perfect home entertainment viewing and as good a reason as any for Netflix to keep making them originals.  

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Drama
Director: Simon Curtis
Cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Margot Robbie, Kelly Macdonald, Will Tilston, Alex Lawther, Stephen Campbell Moore
Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: 20th Century Fox 
Official Website: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/goodbyechristopherrobin/

Opening Day: 26 October 2017

Synopsis: GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN gives a rare glimpse into the relationship between beloved children's author A. A. Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) and his son Christopher Robin (Will Tilston), whose toys inspired the magical world of Winnie-the-Pooh. Along with his mother Daphne (Margot Robbie), and his nanny Olive (Kelly Macdonald), Christopher Robin and his family are swept up in the international success of the books; the enchanting tales bringing hope and comfort to England after the First World War. But with the eyes of the world on Christopher Robin, what will the cost be to the family?

Movie Review:

Not every story has a happy ending and not every author leads a happy life. For instance, the celebrated British writer, A. A. Milne, the man behind Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends from Hundred-Acre-Wood. More accurately, Goodbye Christopher Robin is not just a biography about A. A. Milne but also a touching story behind his son, the real-life Christopher Robin.

In the 1920s, Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) has just returned from World War I, the war that ends all war according to the man although those who know our history knows it’s far from the truth. Seeing that he is despondent and gloomy, his socialite wife, Daphne (Margot Robbie) decides to have a child with him. Unfortunately, the arrival of Christopher Robin aka “Billy Moon” (Will Tilston) didn’t improve matters much.

After a painful time in West End London, Milne who also suffers from PTSD and writer’s block moved the entire family to countryside Sussex in search of inner peace. While Daphne finds excuses to party away and Milne hides in his room to write, Christopher Robin is left in the care of his dutiful nanny Olive (Kelly Macdonald). When Olive has to go on leave to take care of her ailing mother, Milne has no choice but to take over nanny duty and that is when the inspiration of writing about the adventures of Winnie starts to come alive as the father-and-son pair takes frequent hikes in the nearby forest, played cricket and bond like never before.

Directed by Simon Curtis (My Week with Marilyn), Goodbye Christopher Robin is very much an eye-opener for anyone who grew up on the Disneyfied cartoon characters instead of the original Milne’s written works. We are definitely sure that no one will know that Milne and his wife are in fact absent, distant parents who has no qualms leaving their young son while they went partying. While later on, the success of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories turned the real-life Christopher Robin into a media magnet, something the boy is unable to comprehend at such young age. Like the grown-up Christopher Robin says angrily to his dad, “the book is for me, not about me!”

Fame comes at a price and it sort of destroyed the family further when Milne sent his young son to a boarding school where he is frequently bullied for being Christopher Robin. The movie deals with heavy issues liked PTSD (the buzzing sounds from bees reminds Milne of buzzing flies around corpses) and lousy parenting skills obviously. The leisurely pacing allows the biopic to touch more on the latter than the former as there are consequences resulting from Milne’s inept parenting. The tearjerking moment comes right at the end when Christopher Robin has a brutal, heart-to-heart talk with his father at the train station before he set off to fight the war.

The movie is filled with incredible acting especially Domhnall Gleeson and his chemistry with newcomer Will Tilston. Gleeson who will next be seen as General Hux in The Last Jedi puts in a mesmerising performance and Tilston shines with his megawatt cuteness. Given her limited screentime, Margot Robbie has little to show for her rather unlikeable Daphne and Kelly Macdonald is excellent as the Nanny with a heart and a conscious. The cinematography and production design while modest is rich enough for the setting and fans of Winnie-the-Pooh will find little familiar references in Simon Curtis movie. In the league of the original written works, this is an emotionally thoughtful biopic that makes you think a little more the next time you see a stuffed Pooh or Tigger.

Movie Rating:

(A worthwhile poignant journey into the world of A.A. Milne and Christopher Robin)

Review by Linus Tee

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