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BOOK REVIEW #24: TOMB RAIDER: THE ART AND MAKING OF THE FILMPosted on 11 Sep 2018 |
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TRAILER WATCH - ADRIFTPosted on 16 Mar 2018 |
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TRAILER WATCH - FANTASTIC BEASTS AND THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALDPosted on 13 Mar 2018 |
SYNOPSIS: An American soldier imprisoned in postwar Japan enters the dark world of the yakuza, adopting their way of life in repayment for his freedom.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Now that the zeitgeist in Hollywood is of inclusion, it’s suddenly become unfashionable to have a ‘white man’ at the centre of any foreign culture – or so we think that’s why critics have come down so hard on Netflix’s latest original film offering ‘The Outsider’, which stars Jared Leto as a former American soldier who becomes a member of the ‘yakuza’ in post-World War II Japan. Truth is, we didn’t find this movie racist or terrible at all; in fact, we think it’s actually a pretty solid hard-boiled crime drama that aims for meaning than mayhem and comes off more poignant than we had expected it to be.
Unfortunately for Leto’s ex-serviceman Nick Lowell, there isn’t enough backstory about his past for us to understand just how he got into a Japanese prison in the first place, or for that matter why a chance meeting with a fellow ex-GI (Emile Hirsch) so perturbs him that he feels the need to cut the latter by his throat. When we first meet Nick, he is already in the same penitentiary as the Japanese gangster Kiyoshi (Tadanobu Asano), whom he helps escape via a deliberately failed suicide attempt. In turn, Kiyoshi honours his word by securing Nick’s release, and brings him into the underworld family he works for.
Given how un-fond he is of explaining where he had come from, Nick fits right into the culture of the ‘yakuza’, proving his loyalty by bludgeoning a local American businessman (Rory Cochrane) working with a rival gang, standing up for Kiyoshi and other members of the clan when challenged by the same gang at their own strip club, and last but not least participating without hesitation in their time-honored ritual of slicing off his own fingers to make up for a mistake. Nick’s allegiance earns the respect of its aging leader Akihiro (Min Tanaka), who takes Nick in as his own, despite the fact that Nick is clearly a ‘gaijin’.
Nevertheless, the fact that he isn’t Japanese doesn’t bother Nick at all, who swiftly becomes the de-facto enforcer of the Shiromatsu family. That role however brings him into sharper conflict with the members of another clan known as the Seizus, whose younger leader (Nao Omori) is keen to consolidate power. A seemingly distracting but ultimately substantial subpoint has to do with Nick’s romance with Kiyoshi’s sister Miyu (Shioli Kutsuna), not only because it is a weakness that the Seizus exploit later on but also because it earns the ire of Kiyoshi’s sworn buddy Orochi (Kippei Shiina) who was once dating Miyu and remains fond of her.
As you probably can guess, things do not go well for Nick or for the Shiromatsus in general, but that in itself isn’t an excuse for Danish filmmaker Martin Zandvliet to indulge in some generous bloodletting; on the contrary, even though it is bloody, the violence is handled with surprising nuance and elegance. Together with his screenwriter Andrew Baldwin, Zandvliet sketches out the generational turf war as a allegory of the conflict in Japan’s post-war transition between tradition and modernity. Ditto for Orochi’s resistance towards Nick, unable as he is to accept an American into the ranks of his own brethren, his disdain further compounded with jealousy as he finds his former flame falling in love with Nick and out of love with him.
Quite admirably, it isn’t spectacle but character that drives the storytelling; in particular, the key Japanese parts are sharply defined in relation and in contrast to each other, such that their motivations and tensions are without doubt. What his character lacks in definition, Leto makes up for with a quietly charismatic and grounded performance that is both convincing and compelling. Leto himself executive produced the film, and the actor opts to let Nick be a foil to the rest of his Japanese counterparts, even if it means that Nick becomes somewhat a passive observer to his circumstance.
It is for this reason too that we fail to understand why some have lamented of the film’s cultural appropriation, unless being a ‘white survivor’ means the same as being a ‘white saviour’. As far as we can see, ‘The Outsider’ is an engrossing mob drama that also packs an emotional punch. Sure, the hyper-culturally sensitive will bristle at the very thought of an American being accepted in post-war Japan, but there is absolutely no attempt here to assert one culture’s superiority over another; if anything, it actually romanticises the Japanese and the premium they place on honour, sacrifice and brotherhood..
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Action/Adventure/Comics
Director: Anthony and Joe Russo
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Mackie, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Chadwick Boseman, Sebastian Stan, Don Cheadle, Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Benedict Cumberbatch, Benedict Wong, Tom Holland, Peter Dinklage, Idris Elba, Benicio Del Toro, Gwyneth Paltrow, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, William Hurt, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Carrie Coon, Michael James Shaw, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Josh Brolin
Runtime: 2 hrs 30 mins
Rating: PG13 (Violence)
Released By: The Walt Disney Company
Official Website: http://www.facebook.com/marvelsingapore
Opening Day: 25 April 2018
Synopsis: An unprecedented cinematic journey ten years in the making and spanning the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Infinity War” brings to the screen the ultimate, deadliest showdown of all time. The Avengers and their Super Hero allies must be willing to sacrifice all in an attempt to defeat the powerful Thanos before his blitz of devastation and ruin puts an end to the universe.
Movie Review:
A few hours after the credits of this highly anticipated blockbuster finished rolling, and we are still thinking about what we watched.
In the movie’s Superbowl trailer released in Feburary, Tony Stark remarks “So this is it?”, and continues in a foreboding tone “It’s all been leading to this.” The sequel to 2012’s The Avengers and 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron has been building up so much hype, it’s like a gas balloon waiting to burst.
Boom! And here it finally is. A culmination of Marvel's past 10 years on the big screen. A glorious montage of epic battles featuring your favourite Marvel superheroes. And most notably, a 150 minute movie that ends with (don’t tell us you weren’t expecting this!) a dramatic and shocking cliffhanger.
While it doesn’t hit all the right notes, the 19th instalment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is Disney owned Marvel Studios’ most daring production.
You should know the basic plot by now. The Avengers need to team up with the Guardians of the Galaxy to prevent the villainous Thanos from collecting all six Infinity Stones, which will easily allow him to destroy half the universe. In the mix are characters you’ve grown to love over the past decade: Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), War Machine (Don Cheadle), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Vision (Paul Bettany), Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Spider Man (Tom Holland), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his friend Wong (Benedict Wong), Star Lord (Chris Pratt) and his friends from outer space, as well as Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) and his friends from Wakanda.
We sure hope we didn't leave anyone out.
The Russo brothers Anthony and Joe have done an impressive job bringing together all these personalities. The sheer scale of the premise is enough to leave viewers breathless, yet the directors manage to pull of this ambitious project with confidence. You forgive them for not giving every superhero an equal opportunity for character development.
The screenplay by the writing team of Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely brings you from one realm to another, comfortably going for the ride with different groups of protagonists. The
Let’s talk about Thanos. This is a bad guy who does not disappoint. Despite the menacing purple appearance, Thanos is someone who wants to make the over populated universe a better place by, well, re balancing it. He believes that wiping out half the population is the solution to the problem of overcrowding. Yup, this is a guy who takes things blindly into his own hands and causing tonnes of chaos while doing it. Played by Josh Brolin (the actor provided the voice and performed motion capture on set), the character even manages to pull some heartstrings in a few gut wrenching scenes.
Perhaps the most important question is: do any of our beloved superheroes die in this movie? Without giving away too much, let’s just say the filmmakers did what they had to do to move the franchise on. There will be much to process after the movie ends, and all you can do is to wait for another year for the fourth untitled Avengers film to be released. And yes, Thanos will be back.
Movie Rating:
(Do you really need any reasons to catch this highly anticipated blockbuster, which is very much a bold and ballsy beginning of an end?)
Review by John Li
Read our coverage of the Avengers: Infinity War press junket in Singapore
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TRAILER WATCH - WARRIORS OF FUTURE (明日战记)Posted on 20 Mar 2018 |
Genre: Sci-Fi
Director: Lennart Ruff
Cast: Sam Worthington, Taylor Schilling, Tom Wilkinson, Agyness Deyn, Nathalie Emmanuel, Corey Johnson
Runtime: 1 hr 37 mins
Rating: NC16 (Some Violence and Coarse Language)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:
Opening Day: 5 April 2018
Synopsis: In a near-future where the Earth is on the verge of becoming uninhabitable, former Air Force pilot Rick Janssen (SAM WORTHINGTON) is chosen for a military experiment that will create a human being capable of surviving the harsh environments of Saturn's moon, TITAN. Relocating to an island in the Atlantic Ocean to take part in the secret program, Rick is accompanied by his wife Dr Abigail Janssen (TAYLOR SCHILLING) and their young son Lucas. The Janssen family, however, comes to discover that all is not quite as they'd expected - the program's director, Professor Martin Collingwood (TOM WILKINSON), may be using them to a wholly different and mysterious agenda in his attempts to colonize Titan and further the frontiers of human experience.
Movie Review:
We’re not sure what first-time director Lennart Ruff or his screenwriter Max Hurwitz had intended ‘The Titan’ to be. Was it meant as a cautionary tale on genetic experimentation? Or some philosophical exploration of homo sapien versus homo titanian, i.e. human versus humanoid? Or did they in fact think of it as a variation of its lead star Sam Worthington’s claim to fame ‘Avatar’? Frankly speaking, it could have been any of the above, but by failing to choose and commit to one, this sci-fi thriller is probably one of the most muddled and boring genre entries we’ve seen in a while.
The premise is standard issue: the Earth’s over-population has led to a string of wars, including an unexplained nuclear event that has left Los Angeles uninhabitable, and our best hope for the future of mankind is the largest of Saturn’s moons named Titan. Apparently, Titan is the only object in the solar system with a dense atmosphere that can potentially accommodate humans, but in order to do so, we’d have to start learning how to breathe nitrogen instead of oxygen. As such, the morally suspect Professor Martin Collingwood (Tom Wilkinson) has been given the authority to conduct an elaborate genetic editing experiment at a large seaside NATO base in the Canary Islands – instead of ‘trying to shape climate in our image’, he says, we are going to ‘evolve humanity into the stars’.
Worthington’s former Air Force pilot Rick Janssen is one such promising candidate chosen for the mission, and when we first meet him, he is on his way with his wife Abigail (Taylor Schilling) and young son to their new state-of-the-art coastal residence within the army base. Despite its intergalactic premise, most of the movie takes place within the base itself, as Rick and his fellow lab rats are subject to a whole lot of trials and tests. Some of these are mildly interesting – such as when Rick acquires the ability to breathe underwater for more than 30 minutes or swim with the speed and agility of a dolphin – but the first half of the movie is largely a drag that does little both plot and character-wise. In particular, there is not much to chew on about Rick and his family, nor for that matter between Rick and the other people selected for the project, and it is telling that we do not even identify with his fellow servicemen on the level of caricature.
Things only pick up towards the last act when these experiments go wrong – a candidate convulses on the ground and chokes on her own blood; another couple of them kill their spouses within their homes in acts of steroidal rage; and in Rick’s case, losing his eyesight and spouting gills. While it may seem that the film wants to make a point about “playing God”, it never does so emphatically enough; instead, it leans on Abigail to portray the emotional devastation of a beloved wife watching her husband grow increasingly less human. By the time Rick completes his physical transformation into a homo titanian (and turns out resembling a cousin of Joel Edgerton’s orc in ‘Bright’), it is all too clear that the movie intends to go out as a creature horror, thus culminating in the sort of human-versus-alien showdown which is the fate of countless other eugenics-themed sci-fi thrillers.
It isn’t so much that the movie is predictable as the fact that it is simply tedious and even frustrating, never quite settling on what it wants to say or be about. It spends far too long biding its time, and then seems to want to impress on the ethical conundrum of genetic experimentation while contemplating on the relationship between body and identity, but hardly builds itself to anything compelling either way. Worse still, it has an unfortunately bland lead in Worthington, who makes it even more plainly clear how thinly written his character is. Oh yes, the bigger fault is with the script itself, which abruptly shifts its focus from Rick to Abigail somewhere in the middle, in the hope of getting us to care about someone in the movie itself.
To its credit, ‘The Titan’ has avoided taking the B-movie approach as is evident in its restraint on straightforward action and gore. But its visual elegance is hardly worth sitting through if not backed with a strong narrative and sharp thematic focus, both of which are sorely absent. Everything feels muted from start to finish, so much so that by the time the movie makes us sit up with its few brief shots of Rick on the titular moon soaring through its skies with his evolved wings, it is just about time to get up and leave the theatre. In fact, its title seems utterly ironic given how modest and downright diminutive the movie is, and it is no wonder that it has taken two years (as well as a Netflix save in many territories) for it to finally see the light of day. Still, there is barely reason why you should even care, or bother, about this terribly unexciting film that is really little ado about nothing at all.
Movie Rating:
(By not knowing what it wants to be about or what it wants to say, this visually appealing but narratively and thematically empty sci-fi only ends up boring and uninvolving)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Thriller
Director: Adam MacDonald
Cast: Nicole Muñoz, Laurie Holden, Chloe Rose
Runtime: 1 hr 28 mins
Rating: NC16 (Drug Use and Some Disturbing Scenes)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:
Opening Day: 29 March 2018
Synopsis: A frustrated, angst-ridden teenage girl awakens something in the woods when she naively performs an occult ritual to evoke a witch to kill her mother.
Movie Review:
If you’re expecting an all-out demonic horror film, then ‘Pyewacket’ is not going to be that movie for you. Instead, Canadian writer-director Adam MacDonald’s sophomore feature film after his 2014 wilderness adventure ‘Backcountry’ is a slow-burn psychodrama that is more interested in the dysfunction between a mother and her teenage daughter than in the titular demon itself, which only appears in the last fifteen minutes and is even then only briefly seen in its full form.
What MacDonald has chosen to form fully is how Leah (Nicole Munoz), a Goth-styled lass with an interest in the occult, navigates the day-to-day with her mother (Laurie Holden) following the recent death of her father. Leah’s mother is already barely holding it together when we first meet her, and soon after, she makes the unilateral decision of moving them out to a cabin in the woods for a fresh start. Leah is livid that her mother had not discussed it with her, but even more so when her mother suggests that she transfer to a nearer school, since that would mean losing touch with the friends she hangs out with – most notably her bestie Janice (Chloe Rose) and almost-boyfriend Aaron (Eric Osbourn).
After a particularly heated exchange where her mother callously says she wishes she could change up Leah’s face so it wouldn’t remind her of her late husband, Leah performs a ritual to summon the evil spirit to kill her mother. Whereas most other horros would take that as a cue to start unleashing the jump scares, MacDonald holds back on the genre tropes with surprising restraint, such that the demon is only felt as an unsettling presence and/or seen as a malevolent shadow in the first hour. Over that same period, things do get better between the two grief-stricken women, so much so that Leah ends up regretting what she had roused in a fit of anger and despair.
As nuanced and grounded as their thorny mother-daughter relationship may be, you’re bound to be expecting some sort of horror payoff by the third act, and this is also precisely where ‘Pyewacket’ falls short. Things only get really intense during the fleeting moments when Leah’s mother forces her way into Leah’s bedroom and the latter jumps out of the window to escape her clutches. Aside from that, the rest is just build-up, leading to an ambiguous ending that doesn’t want to decide whether there was some supernatural entity all along or if it were all just the culmination of Leah’s increasingly fragile mental state.
Still, against a tide of demonic horror films each trying to top the other in excess, MacDonald’s refusal to yield to those temptations is highly commendable. By investing in character, MacDonald builds a strong emotional core that anchors his film from start to finish, aided by strong performances from his two lead actresses. How much you’re willing to accept a film that grounds its horrors in reality will determine how much you take to ‘Pyewacket’, but equally, those looking for visceral scares simply need not apply. We wish there were a stronger gut punch at the end though, because as noble as its intentions of building a character-driven horror may be, we can’t help but feel underwhelmed by the time the credits rolled.
Movie Rating:
(Less a straight-out horror than a psychodrama, this slow-burn demonic thriller lacks a strong payoff to complement its solid character-driven setup)
Review by Gabriel Chong
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TRAILER WATCH - INVINCIBLE DRAGON <九龙不败>Posted on 25 Mar 2018 |
SYNOPSIS: Single and jobless, best friends Meg (Kate Upton) and Kate (Alexandra Daddario) are in a rough patch. When the pair decides to take a tropical vacation to escape the stress of their lives, a hurricane reroutes their flight to St. Louis for an extended layover. Stuck in a hotel with their fellow passengers, Meg and Kate suddenly find that their vacation has turned into an all-out competition for the same hot guy (Matt Barr) they met on the plane.
MOVIE REVIEW:
It took two men to write The Layover and it even manages to rope in an Oscar nominated actor, William H. Macy to direct it and yes, it’s meant to be a rom-com for the women crowd. Ironically, straight men will find The Layover more appealing than anybody else because it stars two sexy, buxomy actresses, Alexandra Daddario (Baywatch) and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model turned actress Kate Upton.
Upset with their failing careers, two longtime friends, Kate (Daddario) and Meg (Upton) decides to take an impromptu trip to Florida where they both find themselves falling in love with a hunky guy, Ryan (Matt Barr) on board the flight. As ridiculous as the 2009 rom-com, Bride Wars, The Layover has two beasties frantically fighting over a man instead of a wedding venue. The level of silliness is the same, the laughs are limited and this is despite Daddario and Upton putting on their best claws.
Admit this, no one in the right mind is going to watch this movie for the script and acting. The first hot air balloon sequence is just plain forgettable and there’s not enough raunchiness unless you include Kate’s poo situation in the toilet of a petrol kiosk. If you are here for a sexy flick, you won’t be disappointed in the swimming pool scene at least Macy knows the selling point.
The movie kind of put women in a rather tight, embarrassing spot when there’s frequent talks of female empowerment nowadays. You mean girls actually go all competitive and ga-ga over a man and throw out their decades old friendship out of the window in a snap of a finger? Who knows, as this movie is written by two men not a group of girls.
The last act attempts to reconcile and dispense some need be advice about life, a total farce by the way. It’s really hard to root and love all the central characters, they have questionable morals, did despicable things liked putting anti-anxiety pills to a bottle of wine and often annoying. Still, when they are Alexandra Daddario and Kate Upton in real-life, you give them or ahem the movie a chance. We got to be generous at times.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
NIL
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The Layover is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1, a more than serviceable affair. Dialogue and music tracks are clear and excellent. Images and colour is presentable not outright detailed or textured.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD RATING :
Review by Linus Tee
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