Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Yoo Young-seon
Cast: Seo Young-hee, Shon Na-eun, Lee Tae-ri, Park Min-ji
RunTime: 1 hr 31 mins
Rating: NC16 (Some Violence and Sexual Scenes)
Released By: Clover Films and Golden Village Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 6 December 2018
Synopsis: Ok-boon is brought into a great mansion, where mysterious deaths have occurred, and meets Madam Shin, the lady of the house with a great secret. Madam Shin tells Ok-boon the rules she must obey by while in the house. Later, Ok-boon must face the terrifying truths beyond imagination. The dead begins to cry out loud! If you want to live, cover your ears!
Movie Review:
No, we haven’t seen the 1986 original that was apparently one of the scariest Korean horror movies ever made, but judging from this 2018 remake, we suggest that you might want to seek that version out instead. The story of a female peasant Ok-boon (Shon Na-eun from the singing group A-pink) whose hand in marriage is sold to a rich family’s third son and comes to discover its dark secrets, ‘The Wrath’ is ultimately undone by its own excess, incoherence and self-importance. In fact, it tries so hard to make you jump that it ends up having exactly the opposite effect, so much so that even the faint-hearted will probably find themselves having a chuckle at how ridiculous it sometimes gets.
In part, that has to do with writer Park Chae-bum’s feeble script that very quickly runs out of steam. Ok-boon’s key antagonist is the family’s matriarch Madam Shin (Seo Young-hee), who lays down three ground rules when she first arrives and warns her that violating them is punishable by death; among them is an instruction not to enter the store house where the household’s food supplies are kept, and it doesn’t take a genius to guess that there is something sinister behind those locked doors. Anyhow, it isn’t long before Madam Shin is possessed by some evil spirit that travels through the residence under the cover of a dense fog at night, becoming the vessel through which the spirit seeks its revenge on those who had done upon it some grave injustice.
That revelation is saved for the beginning of the third act, and to get to that point, director Yoo Young-seon pads the story out with the occasional presence of a shaman Hae-chun-bi (Lee Tae-ri). On one hand, Hae-chun-bi gets a laughable introduction in which he vomits a copious amount of ink black fluid upon stepping into the residence; on the other, the good-looking Lee is miscast in the role as an all-powerful shaman, so either way, it’s hard to take the character seriously. Ditto the high-ranking Joseon official played by Choi Hong-il, whom Ok-boon stumbles upon locked up in the back of the aforementioned shed and whom is subsequently restored as the head of the family – not only is it not clear just what he is after, the relationship between him and Madam Shin is never quite defined.
Both are therefore weak assists for Ok-boon and Madam Shin, who themselves are in need of more compelling definitions. The film wants us to know Ok-boon as a tough and resilient individual who would rather face the horror than run away from it, but hardly gives her enough space to prove her courage, often portraying her as blessed with some immunity that prevents the spirit from harming her. And because Madam Shin gets possessed much earlier on, you’re never sure whether what she does is of her own doing or that of the spirit’s. Without better characters, the film ends up flailing in its search for purpose, motivation and even just plain logic, settling instead for jump scares that only betray its cluelessness.
It doesn’t help that Yeo’s techniques seem more befitting of a retro horror film, than a modern-day remake. Scenes of evil lurking outside the residence are portended with a bright red light outside the windows, and what is meant to pass as blood comes off like cheap puddles of curdled liquid. There is also much to be desired of Kwak Sang-hoon’s cinematography, whose use of Dutch angles and rough camera movements arguably takes the audience out of the scene than immerse one within it. His use of infra-red during one of the climactic scenes also comes off gimmicky, and seems incongruous with the rest of the movie.
Much has been said back in its home territory about Shon’s amateurish acting, and while the role could certainly have benefitted from a stronger performer, her thinly written character does her no favours. Even a veteran actress like Seo is reduced to pursing her lips most of the time as Madam Shin, which goes to show that the fault isn’t entirely Shon. They and the rest of the actors are trapped in a film that calls for them to keep a straight face and play it serious when the whole treatment is itself pretentious and risibly overdramatic.
We’re not quite sure why the filmmakers attempted a remake in the first place, or how this compares with the original; suffice to say that we found little reason for this version to exist at all, not even for the novelty of watching a horror film unfold in a period Korean setting. From the inept execution, to the clumsy plotting, and right down to the subpar visual and practical effects, ‘The Wrath’ is probably one of the worse Korean horror movies we’ve seen in a while. It’s entertaining all right, but mostly because it ends up being unintentionally funny, so if you are looking for a horror/ comedy (not horror comedy, mind you), then you’ll probably enjoy the histrionics on display here.
Movie Rating:
(An excess of blood, jump scares and over-acting, coupled with illogical plotting and thinly written characters, makes this histronic horror entertaining for mostly the wrong reasons)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Crime/Drama
Director: Brian A. Miller
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Ryan Guzman, Matthew Modine, Meadow Williams, Christopher McDonald, Colin Egglesfield
RunTime: 1 hr 37 mins
Rating: PG13
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:
Opening Day: 27 December 2018
Synopsis: A heist-gone-wrong in a quiet town results in multiple deaths - and a survivor, MacDonald, whose wounds left him unable to remember where $500,000 is stashed. When a mysterious trio break MacDonald out of a mental hospital to recover the cash, they inject him with an experimental serum that sends his mind careening into other eras - and revealing the secrets of his mind. As a local cop (Stallone) and an FBI agent close in, MacDonald fights to recall the robbery before a long-forgotten enemy follows the clues and catches up to him.
Movie Review:
As much as Sylvester Stallone’s name is on the movie, there is good reason to be apprehensive about ‘Backtrace’ – after all, this hails from the Emmett/ Furla factory of B-grade actioners, with their go-to guy Brian A. Miller at the helm. For the uninitiated, their playbook consists of enlisting a recognisable former A-lister in a glorified cameo (the likes of which include Bruce Willis, Nicolas Cage and John Cusack), shooting in cheap nondescript locations (usually guided by where tax breaks are to be found), and doing so in as quick and efficient a manner as possible.
All of these hack tricks are unfortunately on display in ‘Backtrace’, which disappointingly, sees Stallone follow in the footsteps of his aforementioned predecessors in lending his name and a few days in his schedule for an easy paycheck. Oh yes, if Stallone is the reason why you are interested in this movie, you might as well not bother – besides the finale where he engages in a few unconvincing shootouts with the baddies, Stallone only appears in a couple of other throwaway scenes throughout the film, mostly spitting out procedural dialogue while standing in front of a Red Yarn board inside a police station.
In fact, a large part of the film rests on Matthew Modine, who plays the bank robber Macdonald whom Stallone’s weathered cop Sykes is on the tail of. You may remember Modine from ‘Netflix’s Stranger Things’, but the actor was also quite the leading man back in the 1990s – and to his credit, Modine puts in a surprisingly committed performance as the aging stick-up man who now suffers from retrograde amnesia after being shot in the head during a gunfight. Miller’s unimaginative direction calls for Modine to spend much of his time clutching his head in distress as images from his past come flooding back, but there’s no doubt Modine tries his best to sell it.
The same cannot be said of Modine’s top-billed co-star Ryan Guzman, who is one-third of a gang comprising a nurse Erin (Meadow Williams) and prison guard Farren (Tyler Jon Olsen) that springs Macdonald out of captivity in order to jolt his memory using an experimental memory enhancer. There is a somewhat questionable revelation at the end about who these people are in relation to Macdonald, but otherwise, you can safely assume that they want to recover the cash that he and his late buddies had stolen and then hidden seven years ago. Next to Modine, Guzman seems to be sleepwalking through the movie, perfectly content with the excuse that the under-developed script offers.
Frankly, there is a workable premise here for a modestly entertaining action thriller, but neither its writer Mike Maples or Miller seem capable of translating it into anything engaging. Whereas Maples lets the story go slack immediately after setting up the various pieces in the first act, Miller makes it worse by shooting in the most unexciting locations you can ever think of. Even for a micro-budget movie like this, you’d think that they’d try to at least dress up the open field, the office, the car interiors and last but not least the abandoned factory where pretty much the entire movie is set. And Miller too seems incapable of shooting a coherent action sequence, content instead to have random shots of people shooting at one another without any sense of continuity or pace.
So just as it turns out, ‘Backtrace’ belongs in the backyard of B-action movies where many, if not most, of previous Emmett/ Furla movies belong, including the risible ‘Escape Plan 2’ which also had Stallone pull in a paycheck stunt. For the most undemanding viewer, this is still arguably watchable, thanks to Modine’s solid lead performance; but for anyone else without one and a half hours of time to simply idle away, there is absolutely no reason why you should even bother with this bore, even if it is better than Miller’s own previous ‘Reprisal’. This is strictly by-the-numbers VOD material, and a perfectly unnecessary move by Stallone for that matter, least of all when he says another movie called ‘Creed II’ in cinemas at the same time.
Movie Rating:
(Stallone is at best a glorified cameo in a strictly by-the-numbers VOD action thriller that is boosted somewhat by a surprisingly committed lead performance by veteran 90s actor Matthew Modine)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Action/Comedy
Director: Yuichi Fukuda
Cast: Shun Oguri, Masaki Suda, Kanna Hashimoto, Masaki Okada, Masami Nagasawa, Tsuyoshi Domoto, Jiro Sato, Kankuro Nakamura, Yuya Yagira, Ryo Yoshizawa, Natsuna Watanabe, Ryo Katsuji, Shinichi Tsutsumi
Runtime: 2 hrs 14 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence)
Released By: Odex & Golden Village Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 8 November 2018
Synopsis: Gintoki Sakata, Shinpachi Shimura and Kagura run short of money while running their Yorozuya office. They are not able to pay their rent and decide to do part-time work. Whenever they go for part-time work, they meet Shogun-sama. Around that time, the special forces Shinsengumi, led by Isao Kondo is divided among itself. The internal conflict of Shinsengumi connects the conspiracy involving Shogunsama.
Movie Review:
A year after the huge success of the first live-action Gintama, the sequel featuring more or less the original cast and director Yuichi Fukuda is back for more irrelevant humour and exaggerated acting. Consider they have less than a year to churn it out, it’s miraculously a speedy turnaround for a Japanese flick we must add.
Together with his friends, Shinpachi Shimura (Masaki Suda) and Kagura (Kanna Hashimoto), Shun Oguri returns as former samurai Gintoki Sakata aka White Demon. As per the first Gintama, the trio is still making a living running Odd Jobs R Us and they are still facing financial difficulties in paying their rents.
The first half of Gintama 2 is basically a series of comedic acts and outrageous gags being string together. We see our heroes trying to meet ends meets by auditioning as hostess for a night club. Audiences familiar with the first movie will spot a familiar face. The stuttering pimp or club owner is played by veteran actor Jiro Sato, in yet again another hilarious scene-stealing role. In order to please the visiting Shogun (Ryo Katsuji) and Police Chief (Shinichi Tsutsumi from Suspect X), Gintoki and Shinpachi has to dress in drag and that includes yet another recurring character, Masaki (Kotaro Katsura).
The next task sees the trio manning a barber shop which ironically with no real barber in the shop as he is on vacation. With apparent zero hairdressing skills, expect ridiculously funny results when the Shogun drops in for a surprise haircut. Of course, it’s yet again full of mo-lei-tau aka nonsensical humour which true fans of the material or fans of Stephen Chow comedies will appreciate. You know how the movie it’s like when you see the Warner Bros logo being flashed thrice and a voiceover that pokes fun at the Japanese Academy Awards and the award-winning Shoplifters.
It’s almost an hour before we get to the meat of the plot- a coup is rising in the Shinsengumi with the talented loner Itou Kamotarou (Haruma Miura) planning to take over the police force discreetly with returning villain Shinsuke Takasugi(Tsuyoshi Domoto) while the force’s heroic deputy chief, Hijikata (Yuya Yagira) is turned into a Otaru (fan of anime and manga) by a chip embedded in his body. Throw in a powerful mysterious killer, Bansai (Masataka Kubota), the dynamic trio has their hands full. Will our heroes able to resolve the crisis this round and pay their rents on time?
Fortunately, Gintama 2: Rules Are Made To Be Broken has a more coherent plotting and less of the haphazard storytelling aspects of the first. It’s pretty much easier to follow even for non-manga fans though the constant yelling among the characters can be a bit irritable. Repeating the same mistakes as the first, some of the sequences are still very talky even for a fantasy comedy flick and in desperate need of a tighter editing which explains why the sequel clocks in at 134 minutes, 3 minutes longer than the first.
Gintama 2 continues to parody and mocking fun of other Japanese pop culture with obvious reference to Evangelion and a guarantee laugh-out-loud sequence featuring a familiar “vehicle” from Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbour Totoro. Generally, while the CGI remains shoddy and low budget, there’s enough intensity and fun in the massive chase featuring a runaway train, explosions and a decently choreographed swordplay showdown between Bansai and Gintoki for audiences to immerse themselves in.
Shun Oguri who will be making his Hollywood debut in Godzilla Vs Kong is more than comfortable playing the man-child samurai in his second outing though his counterparts liked Masaki Suda, Kanna Hashimoto, Kotaro Katsura and his loyal alien friend, Elizabeth has lesser screentime as much of the story is devoted to the Itou Kamotarou and Hijikatastory arc. As for the unresolved villain arc, given that both Gintamas have performed very well in the Japanese box-office, chances of encountering Shinsuke Takasugi again is very high.
Thus is Gintama 2 a more accessible flick to casual audiences than its predecessor? Again the Gintama property remains a niche movie. It’s more of a treat to fans of the original manga while it’s best for audiences not used to absurd gags and cheesy humour to simply steer away.
Movie Rating:
(Love it or hate it. Gintama 2 is an improvement over the first with a more coherent storyline and far more outrageous gags for its second outing)
Review by Linus Tee
Genre: Comedy
Director: Shaun Su
Cast: Jeannie Hsieh, Clover Kao, Eugenie Liu, Kent Tsai, Chloe Xiang, Zhang Yao, Moxi Zhang
RunTime: 1 hr 36 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Sexual References)
Released By: mm2 Entertainment
Official Website:
Opening Day: 22 November 2018
Synopsis: Dragon Lee struggles with living with his five beautiful, talented, and incredibly strict older sisters. With the transfer of a new girl, Meng, to his class, Dragon decides to trick Meng into becoming his girlfriend so he can escape the control of his sisters. With this new ‘threat’, his sisters set up traps and challenges to try and break up the young couple, but Meng and Dragon grow closer as they head face-on and overcome each challenge together.
Movie Review:
‘How to Train Our Dragon’ may sound oddly similar to the Dreamworks Animation, but the resemblance begins and ends with its title; instead, its name is really intended to convey the sentiments of the five sisters at the heart of this wacky, but often over-the-top, comedy romance, who have been protective of their one and only brother named Dragon (Kent Tsai) since he had his heart broken by a girl he had a crush on as a kid. It will be two-thirds of the movie in before we are finally enlightened how Dragon would end up being raised by five older sisters – ever since their parents’ divorce, their father has decided to go on tour after tour around the world; meanwhile, their mother has embraced her newfound freedom and hooked up with boyfriend after boyfriend, and is currently dating an African-American.
The premise is interesting – i.e. a boy who’s pretty much been raised his entire life by five (over)protective older sisters, and now seeks to break free from their supervision/ scrutiny and live his life on his own terms – and at least at the start, it seems like the movie would be as much about him as his five sisters, each of whom are given an animated title-card introduction. The oldest is Kourtney (Jeannie Hsieh), a no-nonsense matriarch who is the primary caregiver of the bunch; Kim (Eugenie Liu) is the second-oldest, a strict but slightly offbeat educator at the school Dragon studies in; Khloe (Zhang Mo Xi) is right smack in the middle, a bookish type great with computers; the second-youngest is Kendall (Clover Kao), a tough-as-nails cookie who is great with a bow and arrow; and last but not least is Kylie (Zhang Yao), sweet and demure as the youngest usually comes.
But it isn’t long before you realise that director Shaun Su, who co-wrote the movie with Chien I-Chueh, actually intends for the focus to be on Dragon and his budding romance with the newest girl in the school named Meng (Hsiang Jie-Ru). Seizing on Meng’s compulsion to be helpful to anyone and everyone around her, Dragon spins a sob story about how his sisters really intend to harvest his organs to cure their respective impediments, and together with his buddy Yun-yee (Berant Zhu), manage to convince Meng to help him break free from his sisters. Oh yes, it really is as silly and absurd as it sounds, but if you’re going to enjoy the similarly preposterous gags that follow, you’d better be prepared to accept this overblown movie on its own bizarre terms of how the world works.
Don’t go questioning therefore why Kendall would be allowed to shoot arrows freely in school without say any of the teachers or principal stopping her. Don’t go questioning too why not the students or the teachers seem to be worried when someone starts throwing bombs around in school, notwithstanding that they explode in colour. And for that matter, don’t even bother asking why it seems like the staff seem practically non-existent, pretty much leaving the students to their own devices and to do whatever they wish to within the school compound whenever they want to. It’s as illogical, ridiculous and farcical as it gets, so if you’re the type that needs to ask and/or understand why things happen the way they do, well you’d be advised to stay far away from this movie.
As is typical of its genre, the third act is soaked in saccharine as Dragon and Meng end up falling in love with each other but are forced to confront the lies between them that brought them closer in the first place. Predictable as it may be, there are some tender moments between the lead couple that are well played by Tsai and Hsiang, who do share some genuine chemistry with each other. Still, however grounded their romance is, the OTT climax literally and figuratively blows it away. Without spoiling it for anyone, let’s just say it involves an intensely jealous lover, a makeshift rocket that can really achieve lift-off, and many declarations of who loves who just before it ends. Again, it requires a huge, even monumental, suspension of disbelief for one to buy into it, let alone be swept away with its mix of comedy, drama and action.
Frankly, we tried very hard to like ‘How to Train Our Dragon’, but it just simply got too ridiculous for its own sake. Sure, we can accept certain distortions or even exaggerations to reality; yet what So seems to be asking of his audience is to completely disregard the bounds of reality. He also does his own movie no favours by not developing the relationship between Dragon and his sisters more deeply, focusing too much on how they make life difficult for him and not enough on how they must love him as much to be this overprotective of him. Only if you don’t mind your teenage comedy utterly specious should you think you would enjoy this movie, which needs a far stronger script and a far better grasp of reality. Heck, its name may be a deliberate pun of the Dreamworks animation, but it shouldn’t play like it was some cartoon should it?
Movie Rating:
(A lively pace and energetic performances cannot quite save a movie that is too absurd and farcical for its own good)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Director: Gilles Lellouche
Cast: Mathieu Amalric, Guillaume Canet, Benoît Poelvoorde, Virginie Efira
RunTime: 2 hrs 2 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Some Drug Use and Nudity)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:
Opening Day: 29 November 2018
Synopsis: A group of 40-something guys, all on the verge of a mid-life crisis, decide to form their local pool’s first ever synchronized swimming team – for men. Braving the skepticism and ridicule of those around them, and trained by a fallen champion trying to pull herself together, the group set out on an unlikely adventure, and on the way will rediscover a little self-esteem and a lot about themselves and each other.
Movie Review:
There comes a time in every man’s life that he feels there’s nothing else going for him. For some strange melancholic reason, this writer is feeling it as he approaches 40 years of age. While movies like The Full Monty (1997) and Wild Hogs (2007) are attempts at showing the world that unattractive men (read: real bodies with fats, bellies and unglamorous skin tones) can make things fabulous again, this reviewer isn’t so sure that he can pull off a striptease act or zoom through the streets on a Harley bike.
Then along comes this French film – one that puts a group of 40 odd year old men in the spotlight. Each of these guys clearly has issues in his life (family, career or some existentialist problem), but when circumstances put them in a pool, these dudes find themselves forming a synchronised swimming team.
And as movies of this genre have it, the disenchanted characters begin a journey of boosting their confidence and picking up their self esteem. In the mix are a team leader who had fallen from grace, a mix of personalities, the predictable comedy and the obligatory squabbles.
Not that this is a bad thing though, because the world may have had enough feel bad enough movies – why not serve up a candy coated story that promises a happy ending? Besides, it’s a French film and productions from the country rarely fail us.
The 122 minute comedy drama directed by Gilles Lellouche features a fine ensemble. Mathieu Amalric, whom we are familiar as the psychotic villain in Quantum of Solace (2008), is one of the members of the motley crew. The award winning actor, who also headlined The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007), plays his character (an everyday man working in a department store) effortlessly. Another familiar face sharing the stage is Guillaume Canet (Love Me If You Dare, The Program). His character has to deal with an aged mother suffering from neurological disorder, which makes his story easy to empathise with.
Other members of the ensemble include Benoît Poelvoorde, Jean Hugues Anglade and Philippe Katerine who deliver decent performances. Virginie Efira and Leïla Bekhti who form the female cast hold their ground as well.
One wishes there were more sequences showcasing the men’s synchronised swimming. After fumbling through some sessions, the practices apparently get more intense but these are not shown on screen. It seems like a wasted opportunity to make the movie more entertaining. The final competition, which is understandably the highlight of the movie, is good enough a reason why you should catch this feel good flick.
The film also tries to explore some society issues but they are not in depth enough to make a statement. We are guessing someone in the film production team decided that it is still more worthwhile to focus on a group of men who are out of shape but yet retaining the entertainment values through laughs, visual gags and a takeaway message that you should be who you are.
Movie Rating:
(A formulaic and feel good drama comedy that doesn’t ask for too much from its viewers)
Review by John Li
Genre: CG Animation
Director: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey
Cast: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Jake Johnson, Liev Schreiber, Nicolas Cage, John Mulaney, Lily Tomlin
Runtime: 1 hr 57 mins
Rating: PG (Some Violence)
Released By: Sony Pictures Releasing International
Official Website: http://www.intothespiderverse.movie
Opening Day: 13 December 2018
Synopsis: Spider-Man crosses parallel dimensions and teams up with the Spider-Men of those dimensions to stop a threat to all reality.
Movie Review:
Before you groan that ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ is yet another origin story on the titular superhero, let us reassure you that this animated action-comedy from the irreverent minds which brought you ‘The LEGO Movie’ is like no other origin story you’ve seen.
And truly we mean that in a good, even great way: producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, together with a trio of directors (Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman), have completely embraced the freedom that the animated genre provides in adapting the array of comic books of the Spider-Man canon. Untethered from the sort of realism that live-action movies are bound to, they have instead created a film with an ultra-stylistic, hyper-kinetic, over-caffeinated aesthetic that is visually dazzling in its own right.
Amalgamating Ben-Ray dots, hand-drawn effects and soft-focus backgrounds (reminiscent of the old non-polarised 3D movies with blurry red and blue edges), with a deliberately stilted frame-rate and signature comic-book elements of panelisation and dialogue boxes, it is probably the closest we’ve come to see of a comic recreated in motion. To be sure, it does get a little over-indulgent at times; in particular, the retina-searing finale that takes place inside a universe-collapsing subterranean device resembles what you may get within an overly aggressive lava lamp, playing like the most sustained stream of vibrant psychedelia we’ve ever recalled seeing. It’s breath-taking all right, even breathless at some points, but there is no denying the imagination and originality that is on display.
The same can be said of Lord’s script, co-written with Rothman, that boldly imagines a formula-busting origin story with a potent emotional core. At the centre of it is the character of Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), a Brooklyn Afro-Latino teenager having trouble adjusting to life inside a new elite boarding school. Miles, who first appeared in the comic seven years ago from writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli, has had great expectations thrust upon him by his NYPD cop-father Jefferson (Brian Tyree Henry) and nurse-mother Rio (Luna Lauren Velez), but prefers hanging out with his father’s estranged brother Uncle Aaron (Mahershala Ali) graffitiing the subways.
In Miles’ version of New York City, Peter Parker’s Spider-Man (Jake Johnson) is a well-established community hero/ vigilante, but Miles realises that Peter’s powers aren’t quite that exclusive when he himself is bitten by a radioactive spider. Unfortunately, before Peter can teach Miles how to properly navigate his newfound powers, the former is killed while trying to stop the Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) from using his nuclear super-collider from ripping a gash in the space-time continuum and causing several alternate universes to collapse onto the present.
Thankfully for Miles, that same machine also opens up portals in other parallel universes, pulling in several alternate Spider-People into his universe. These include a paunchy, washed-up 40-year-old Peter Parker (Johnson again); the graceful, ass-kicking and too-cool-for-school Spider-Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld); the hard-boiled, black-and-white Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage); the cartoonish Peter Porker a.k.a. Spider-Ham (John Mulaney); and last but not least, the anime-inspired Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn) and her arachno-droid SP//dr.
Even with upwards of seven Spider-beings and five bad guys (besides the Kingpin, there is also Doc Ock, Prowler, Tombstone and Scorpion in the rogues’ gallery), the movie never comes off overstuffed, thanks to a surprisingly poignant relationship between Miles and Peter.
Ultimately, this is Miles’ coming-of-age story that sees him struggling to step up to the mantle in order to save the world. Next to Miles, the curmudgeonly Peter is both his foil and his mentor, and their relationship is the heart and soul of the movie. In fact, they anchor some of the best sequences in the movie: their first encounter which finds both of them bound and dragged by a subway train through the streets of New York is both exciting and hilarious; and Peter’s lesson to Miles how to web-swing through from tree to tree in upstate New York while being chased by Doc Ock is also both exhilarating and joyous to watch.
Yet we would be remiss if we did not acknowledge that ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ does sometimes veer into excess. As unapologetically self-referential as it is, its self-awareness sometimes proves too clever for its own good, tipping so far into fan service that it comes off rather self-indulgent. It is also guilty of resorting to the same superhero comic-book clichés that it pokes a postmodern finger at, most notably how the key to disarming the Kingpin’s supercollider is a simple USB device. And there is so much going on that certain emotional notes do not ring as loudly as they should, and that is especially true of the family triangle comprising Miles, his cop dad and his cool uncle that feels less fleshed out than it should be.
Even so, this is one of the most original superhero origin stories we’ve seen in a very long while, and that alone says a lot for a character like Spider-Man which has seen no less than three reboots over the past few years. With this high-concept animated movie, Sony has finally moved on from Peter Parker in a manner that acknowledges his significance and expand the Spider-Verse in fresh and exciting ways. Credit to that belongs very much to Lord and Miller, whose sensibilities are all over the movie, ranging from its witty quips to its breakneck pace to its meta-textual treatment.
Fans of the Spider-Man comics will quite surely love it to bits, but there is also plenty for the casual viewer to enjoy in this fast, funny and thrilling piece of definitive pop-culture. It is brilliant all right, and we dare say one of the best Spider-Man movies ever made.
Movie Rating:
(Overflowing with wit, verve and inventiveness, this latest Spider-Man reboot expands the Spider-Verse in visually dazzling and hilariously self-referential ways)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Fantasy
Director: Yan Jia
Cast: Jackie Chan, Elane Zhong, Ethan Juan, Lin Peng, Austin Lin
RunTime: 1 hr 49 mins
Rating: PG (Some Violence)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:
Opening Day: 5 February 2019
Synopsis: The boundary between the world of humans and monsters has collapsed! The legendary demon hunter (Jackie Chan) defends humanity from an inhuman invasion with a motley group of friendly monsters. When the barrier holding back the kingdom of monsters is opened and village girls start getting kidnapped, our hero encounters another demon hunter who is not fully human!
This epic movie features exciting action, wild comedy, eternal love and revelations of a world beyond..
Movie Review:
As excited as you may be for a Jackie Chan action comedy during the Lunar New Year season, you should know that ‘The Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang’ isn’t like them old-school ones – after all, there is little, if at all, of the sort of acrobatic fighting which Jackie is typically associated with, with much of the action consisting of plainly obvious wire-work enhanced by copious amounts of CGI. That’s not to say it isn’t entertaining though; on the contrary, Jackie is at his funniest here that he’s been in recent years, demonstrating that while his versatility may have diminished with age, his comic timing remains as sharp as ever.
For the same reason, the first half of the movie – which is built around Jackie’s quirky demon hunter Pu Songling – is relatively more engaging. Dispatched by the King of Demons upon the fall of the barrier separating humans and demons, Pu spends his days tracking down those which have escaped, keeping the good ones by his side while capturing the evil ones within his book of scriptures to be burnt at the Gate of the Abyss. Pu is aided on his missions by three loyal assistants – a tree-like demon appropriately named Handsy for its extendable branches; a short, green and plump demon dressed in a Chinese vampire suit and suitably named Gassy after its poisonous farts; and last but not least, a female child-like demon named Breezy with the ability to revive or remove one’s memories.
A series of thefts by the pig demon Hobgoblin leads Pu to cross paths with enthusiastic junior police official Yan Fei (Austin Lin), which not only earns Pu an additional demon assistant but also a human disciple. Both master and disciple then team up to investigate the disappearance of a number of teenage girls from the county, the latest being the county chief’s very own daughter. These disappearances are the work of a cunning mirror demoness (Lin Peng), who is working in cahoots with the seductive snake demon Nie Xiaoqian (Elaine Zhong). Both are also being pursued by a mysterious warrior Yan Chixia (Ethan Juan), who is bent on retrieving Xiaoqian’s Spirit Orb for reasons that will only become clearer much later on.
Without giving too much away, let’s just say that Chixia and Xiaoqian’s tragic love story becomes the focus of the latter half of the movie, with the former desperately trying to convince the latter to give up her Spirit Orb, while pleading with Pu not to condemn her to death within his scripture book. What had started out as a comedy morphs into a supernatural romance (think ‘Painted Skin’) that all but renders anyone other than the pair of star-crossed lovers inconsequential. Die-hard romantics may lap up the melodrama, but for most, we suspect that you’ll probably be more enamoured by the earlier scenes of Pu’s earlier tutelage of Fei as well as their sleuthing.
To their credit, both Ethan Juan and Elaine Zhong try their heartfelt best to make their love story endearing, but they are no match for Jackie Chan’s infectiously goofy charm. As Pu, Jackie single-handedly owns the movie’s most delightful moments, such as when he draws two circles around Fei’s eyes in order to open the latter’s Heavenly Eyes to see demons, or when he realises to his horror that Fei had slaughtered and cooked his beloved pet chickens for breakfast. And in what is easily the film’s most hilariously inventive sequence, Jackie finds the top half of his body trapped in a mirror and his other half running helter skelter in a room full of brass mirrors while pursuing the aforementioned mirror demon. Like we said at the start, age may have taken a toll on his physicality, but his comic energy is just as radiant.
You’d miss Jackie’s playfulness even more during the CG overload that concludes the movie. Swapping intimacy for sheer spectacle, the action expands to gargantuan proportions in two extended fantasy battle scenes, what with Xiaoqian assuming the form of a giant red snake to exact vengeance upon Pu, and Chixia storming the netherworld subsequently to rescue Xiaoqian. It’s not so much that the visual effects could do with a lot more polishing, than the fact that the movie becomes so obsessed with its deluge of unbridled destruction that it almost forgets its characters. The excess is unnecessary all right, not least because the movie could simply have relied on Jackie to deliver a crowd-pleasing finish.
Even so, we must admit that we were pleasantly surprised by how fun his latest turned out to be. We had feared it to be a feeble attempt to replicate the success of the ‘Monster Hunt’ films, which also combined live-action and animation to tell a story involving demons and demon hunters. But thankfully, that is also where the similarities end, with what follows a delightfully engaging fantasy which packs comedy, romance and wire-ful action. Indeed, the comedy outshines the rest of them, brought to vivacious life by none other than Jackie Chan himself. So never mind that he hardly gets to show off his moves, Jackie is just as entertaining goofing around while playing master and detective. If it’s cheer you’re looking for this Lunar New Year, you’ll find plenty of that and more here.
Movie Rating:
(So what if Jackie Chan hardly fights at all here? We guarantee you'll still have plenty of fun with Chan at his playful best)
Review by Gabriel Chong
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HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 29TH SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVALPosted on 24 Nov 2018 |
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5 FILMS THAT ARE SOLD OUT AT SGIFF 2018Posted on 25 Nov 2018 |
SYNOPSIS: After accidentally crashing Santa's sleigh, a brother and sister pull an all-nighter to save Christmas with a savvy, straight-talking St. Nick.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Before you dismiss ‘The Christmas Chronicles’ as yet another Santa Claus movie, you may wish to know that Santa here is played by none other than Kurt Russell. Oh yes, that Russell who once starred as the anti-hero Snake Plissken from ‘Escape from New York’ and ‘Escape from L.A.’ is jolly old Saint Nick, and let’s just say that Russell’s unlikely turn alone is worth your time on Netflix.
Truth be told, Russell’s Santa is really less jolly than feisty, seeing as how he gets annoyed when asked to go ‘Ho ho ho’ and whenever he sees a cola advertisement that makes his butt look bigger than it really is. Not only does this Santa have attitude, he also has plenty of derring-do. Indeed, you’ve probably never seen Santa behind the wheel of a bright-red Dodge Challenger engaging in a high-speed chase with a bunch of cops in downtown Chicago; nor for that matter, would you have imagined Santa behind bars performing Elvis’ ‘Santa Claus is Back in Town’ with his cellmates.
The story on the whole may ring a familiar tune, but you’d have to give credit to writer Matt Lieberman for daring to be different with this version of Santa Claus. So too the people responsible for casting Russell, for he injects energy, humour and gusto that will have you cheering along with him. Pity then that Russell isn’t in the movie more, which is really centred less on Santa than on the two young protagonists that his character inspires: 10-year-old optimist Kate (Darby Camp) and her surly teen brother Teddy (Judah Lewis).
This is their coming-of-age story, as both kids try to survive their first Christmas without their firefighter dad who recently passed away in the line of duty. Whereas Kate goes around obsessively filming stuff on their dad’s old camcorder, Teddy has been mixing with the wrong company, and in one of the film’s early scenes, is caught by Kate on camera stealing a car with his “friends”. Because their harried mom (Kimberley Williams-Paisley) is suddenly called into an overnight shift in the emergency room on Christmas Eve, Teddy is forced to babysit Kate, whereupon he decides to humour her by setting up a trap to catch Santa in the act.
As you can probably expect, Kate is a ‘true believer’ in Santa, and true enough, her plan lands her and Teddy up close and personal with the man himself. Alas, Santa has a bit of a mishap when he is taken by surprise in mid-flight by the both of them stowed away at the back of his sleigh. More crucially than losing his reindeer and bag of presents, Santa drops his magical hat and must find them all to put things right – we are warned repeatedly how the world is doomed to more crime and social unrest as the level of Christmas spirit falls precipitously. But is it really any surprise that Teddy and Kate will eventually help Santa save the day?
Even so, there are more than a couple of well-executed set-pieces to keep you entertained, including a number of breakneck sleigh rides, the aforementioned car chase, Teddy’s run-in with a couple of crooks and some rapid-fire chimney dives at the end to deliver them Christmas presents before the sun is up. But worthy of singular mention is Kate’s tumble through Santa’s bottomless sack of presents into his very workshop, where she meets his whole eclectic army of elves that resemble producer Chris Columbus’ ‘Gremlins’ creations. These elves have personality all right, and they complement this roguish Santa with their own mischievous ways.
That ‘The Christmas Chronicles’ would be a heart-warming happily-ever-after affair was always a given, but even within the predictable feel-goodness, you’d have to give credit to director Clay Kaytis (whose first movie was ‘The Angry Birds Movie’) for putting a fresh spin on Santa as well as some of his age-old tropes. Look out too for Goldie Hawn as Mrs Claus at the end of the movie, which will certainly put a smile on the faces of those who remember the golden couple from the 1980s. It may be a Santa movie, but there is plenty within to make this 2018 Netflix Christmas movie recommended viewing for the whole family.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Gabriel Chong
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