Genre: Action/Comics
Director: James Gunn
Cast: Margot Robbie, Jai Courtney, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, John Cena, Pete Davidson, Michael Rooker, Sean Gunn, Idris Elba, Peter Capaldi, David Dastmalchian, Daniela Melchior, Flula Borg, Nathan Fillion, Mayling Ng, Alice Braga
Runtime: 2 hrs 12 mins
Rating: M18 (Violence and Coarse Language)
Released By: Warner Bros
Official Website:
Opening Day: 5 August 2021
Synopsis: Welcome to hell—a.k.a. Belle Reve, the prison with the highest mortality rate in the US of A. Where the worst Super-Villains are kept and where they will do anything to get out—even join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X. Today’s do-or-die assignment? Assemble a collection of cons, including Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Captain Boomerang, Ratcatcher 2, Savant, King Shark, Blackguard, Javelin and everyone’s favorite psycho, Harley Quinn. Then arm them heavily and drop them (literally) on the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese. Trekking through a jungle teeming with militant adversaries and guerrilla forces at every turn, the Squad is on a search-and-destroy mission with only Colonel Rick Flag on the ground to make them behave...and Amanda Waller’s government techies in their ears, tracking their every movement. And as always, one wrong move and they’re dead (whether at the hands of their opponents, a teammate, or Waller herself). If anyone’s laying down bets, the smart money is against them—all of them.
Movie Review:
Not exactly a sequel or a reboot of 2016’s ‘Suicide Squad’, ‘The Suicide Squad’ is writer/ director James Gunn’s do-over of that disastrous superhero movie which never managed to be as absurdist as it needed to be.
That Gunn was available to apply his creative genius to the DC comic book property was pure fortuity – as Marvel fans would know, the director was slated to direct the third installment of the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ franchise before Disney severed ties with him over a couple of off-colour jokes he had tweeted in the past. That (momentary) loss is DC’s gain, for Gunn’s hard R-rated take on the material is an absolute delight.
Combining his recently gained experience for glossy mega-budget superhero movies with his penchant for over-the-top gore-fests (think ‘Tromeo and Juliet’, ‘Super’ or ‘Slither’), Gunn fashions a deliriously ultra-violent mix of action and satire. Unlike his predecessor, Gunn understands the whole point of having fun with these despicable but oddly likeable characters, including a number of hold-overs from the previous movie and a massive roster of new guys; and returning to help connect the old and the new is the mysterious U.S. government official Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), who is once again recruiting incarcerated villains to do dangerous missions in exchange for time off their sentences.
The movie opens with a misdirect: the silver-haired Savant (Michael Rooker) is enlisted by fitting him with a device that will blow his head off if he disobeys her orders, and promptly sent off on a beach raid under Commander Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman; also a 2016 holdover) that recalls the ‘Bay of Pigs’ invasion. Minutes later, the team is betrayed by one of their own, with just Rick and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) surviving the massacre.
That battle is however but a distraction for the real team to move into place. These comprise the ex-military operative Robert DuBois aka Bloodsport (Idris Elba); the similarly matched sharpshooter Peacemaker (John Cena), who wears his patriotism on his sleeve; the sweet, sensitive young woman Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), who can control rats telepathically; the deeply introverted Polka Dot Man (David Dastmalchian) with mommy issues; and last but not least the half-man/ half-shark King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone) prone to munching anything he sees.
Their mission, as Waller explains, is to infiltrate the fictional South American nation of Corto Maltese, where a recent military coup has unseated the authoritarian regime which was nonetheless friendly to the US; in particular, Waller has asked that they destroy a phallic-looking research facility called Jotenheim that houses Project Starfish, and it should be no secret that the reference is to the giant, telepathic, pink starfish called Starro which has been featured prominently in the trailers.
Than simply bombard his audience with deliberately choreographed set-pieces, Gunn puts plenty of time in the first half building the team’s bond. Indeed, the dynamics among the mismatched anti-heroes is at the very heart of the movie: the match-up between Bloodsport and Peacemaker is perfect, beginning with amusing squabbles over who is better at killing and evolving into a compelling distinction between loyalty and humanity; Ratcatcher 2 stands out as the group’s sole warm, empathetic spirit; and King Shark is an unexpectedly loveable oddball.
It is not until the second half that the action really kicks in, and by then, you’ll be lapping up every single one of their respective eccentricities. Harley Quinn’s standalone set-piece is delightfully deranged, as the cheerful anarchist visualises every bullet and blood-splash as bursts of candy-coloured flowers. The raid on Jotenheim is both thrilling and chilling at the same time, and the subsequent showdown between the Suicide Squad and Starro the Conqueror in the streets of the city is most notable for letting the least expected among them save the day.
That the characters are such good company is also to the credit of the distinguished ensemble which Gunn has assembled with careful attention. More so than in her previous two outings, Robbie settles into her role as Harley Quinn here with utter gleeful abandon. Elba brings his reliable charisma to Bloodsport, and perhaps most significantly, shares an infectious chemistry with a perfectly cast Cena whom he exchanges barbs in place of bullets. Though the sheer number of characters means other supporting acts (like Peter Capaldi’s mad scientist or Juan Diego Botto’s villainous but suave new president) do not get as much time to shine, you can tell each is determined to simply have as much riotous fun as Gunn would allow.
In case it isn’t yet obvious, ‘The Suicide Squad’ is as bonkers as anything Gunn has ever done for the mainstream crowd; and yet, that is exactly what was needed to rescue this movie from the ignominy of its predecessor. By being darkly funny, bleakly self-aware and unapologetically nihilistic at the same time, this re-do succeeds in being a rollicking ride from start to finish, buoyed by a brilliant group of actors who knows just how to Gunn it. As sadistic as it may sound, you’ll be having a blast watching them die to save the world.
Movie Rating:
(A deliriously ultra-violent mix of action and satire, this do-over of the DC comic book is as absurdist as its predecessor never was but should have been)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Drama/Thriller
Director: Nicholas Jarecki
Cast: Gary Oldman, Armie Hammer, Evangeline Lilly, Greg Kinnear, Michelle Rodriguez, Luke Evans, Lily-Rose Depp
Runtime: 1 hr 59 mins
Rating: NC16 (Some Drug Use and Coarse Language)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:
Opening Day: 1 April 2021
Synopsis: CRISIS, the second feature film from Nicholas Jarecki (writer/director of the critically acclaimed Arbitrage) takes an uncompromising look at the opioid crisis through three parallel stories inspired by real life events. A taut and alluring thriller, the tension-filled CRISIS puts a human face on the epidemic which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide and continues to rage out of control. Caught in the crisis are: Dr. Tyrone Brower (Gary Oldman), a university professor who battles unexpected revelations about his research employer, a major pharmaceutical company bringing a new “non-addictive” painkiller to market; Jake Kelly (Armie Hammer), an undercover DEA agent who attempts to infiltrate an international Fentanyl smuggling operation; and Claire Reimann (Evangeline Lilly), an architect recovering from an Oxycodone addiction who tracks down the truth behind her son’s involvement with narcotics. Together, their worlds combine to illuminate the landscape of an international health crisis touching every corner of society in a story of professional integrity, moral ambiguity, and love and revenge.
Movie Review:
It’s not hard to understand why writer-director Nicholas Jarecki’s latest film about the opioid epidemic has been compared to Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Traffic’. Like the latter, ‘Crisis’ applies a multiple-narrative structure to dissect its subject, each storyline specifically chosen to portray how opioids have impacted the lives of different individuals at various levels of society.
First, there’s the foul-mouthed DEA agent Jake Kelly (Armie Hammer), who is orchestrating a fentanyl sting to bring down both the Armenian-American and Canadian cartels in Montreal smuggling drugs across the US-Canadian border. Then there’s the grieving mother Claire Reimann (Evangeline Lilly), a recovering oxycodone addict who is looking for closure after the sudden death of her teenage son. And last but not least, there’s the university professor Dr Tyrone Brower (Gary Oldman), whose latest research on a soon-to-market designer opioid places him in a collision course with the very Big Pharma company funding his research.
On their own, none of these stories would be compelling enough. Whether due to Hammer’s one-note sullen performance or Jarecki’s writing, it is never clear what drives Jake to be so dogged in his mission – while the plotting suggests that it is because his sister (Lily-Rose Depp) is an addict, their relationship is hardly fleshed out enough to lend it sufficient depth or poignancy. Lilly fares better with her character that is driven by grief to become avenger, but Jarecki’s treatment of her transformation into Dirty Harry territory strains credulity.
Perhaps not surprisingly, it is Oldman, who executive produces the movie, that stands out with the movie’s most convincing character. Starting out as an ethical decision, Oldman’s Dr Brower is caught off guard grappling with the fallout of not staying quiet on the explosive results of his lab research – not only is he stripped of his tenure at the university where he lectures, he is also discredited by the university’s board and in the news for past indiscretions of alcoholism and sexual harassment.
Yet as persuasive as he is, not even Oldman can disguise the undeniable artifice in the construction of these storylines. It takes a significant suspension of disbelief to buy into the premise that after years of development, it is only until Dr Brower’s lab experiment that it is found that the purported drug is three times as addictive as Oxycotin and kills lab mice in 10 days. Just as strange is how easily Claire traces down the head of the Canadian cartel called ‘Mother’, when it had taken a whole police force on both sides of the border just to think through how to bring the fight to them.
And that is why despite the similarities, ‘Crisis’ pales in comparison to ‘Traffic’. Whereas Soderbergh kept the proceedings gritty and realistic, Jarecki fails to do the same, oversimplifying a complex subject and painting it in artificial broad strokes which fail to do justice to its reality. To be sure, it maintains enough momentum to sustain itself throughout its two-hour runtime, but it is a lumpy and never entirely persuasive blend of three largely separate, sometimes interlinked, stories that short-changes viewers looking for a more incisive treatment.
Compared to Jarecki’s acclaimed debut ‘Arbitrage’, this follow-up is a substantively less consequential entry which is also worse off because of the comparisons it inspires. It is certainly watchable, but it doesn’t shed much light to the scope of the crisis, or for that matter, its finer intricacies. There is a genuine emergency out there of people using, abusing and expiring from opioids, an emergency whose tendrils extend from corporations to criminals to the common people. That ‘Crisis’ doesn’t leave you with any thought-provoking cogitations underscores its shortcomings, so despite being well-intentioned, it falls somewhat short of trying to expose the sobering costs of the opioid crisis while being a satisfying thriller.
Movie Rating:
(Employing the same multiple-narrative structure as 'Traffic', 'Crisis' falls short of being compelling, incisive or thought-provoking)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Brandon Cronenberg
Cast: Andrea Riseborough, Christopher Abbott, Rossif Sutherland, Tuppence Middleton, Sean Bean, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins
Rating: R21 (Sexual Scene and Some Violence)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:
Opening Day: 25 March 2021
Synopsis: An agent for a secretive corporation uses brain-implant technology to inhabit other people's bodies, driving them to commit assassinations for high-paying clients. But mental strain from the technology and her growing hunger for violence eventually cause her to lose control on a job, and she becomes trapped in the mind of a dangerous host who can access her memories.
Movie Review:
Proving that he is very much the filmmaking heir to his father, Brandon (son of David) Cronenberg’s latest is an intriguing, yet utterly disturbing, science-fiction horror thriller that tests the limits of not just our R21 rating but also your tolerance of violence and gore.
That should be apparent right from the start – the movie’s first shot is that of someone inserting a clinical needle deep into their own scalp. That same young woman then enters a fancy penthouse gala as its cocktail crew, striding up to a corpulent guest and butchering him with a steak knife before pulling out a gun and turning it onto herself. ‘Pull me out’ are her last words, before the scene changes to that of a high-tech lab where Tasya (Andrea Riseborough) is being pulled out of a contraception over her head.
Tasya works for a top-secret corporation run by former assassin Girder (Jennifer Jason Leigh) that carries out assassinations by proxy. With the help of an ingestible chip implant, the corporation has found a way for its employees to infiltrate into their subjects’ brains and compel these subjects to carry out the murders. Before they unplug, they will have their subjects blow their own brains out.
You can see how the premise could be that of a big-budget blockbuster by say Christopher Nolan, but writer-director Cronenberg unfortunately does not have the same luxury; so instead, he has fashioned a character-driven narrative centred on Tasya’s mental breakdown as she takes on her latest assignment to invade the body of Colin (Christopher Abbott), a former coke dealer, to kill his elegant fiancee Ava (Tuppence Middleton) and his future father-in-law John Parse (Sean Bean). In case you’re wondering, that would leave John’s lucrative business in the hands of another family member, whose identity remains inconsequentially unknown throughout the movie.
Not all is well with Tasya; besides finding her subjects’ consciousness bleeding into hers, she is also estranged from her husband Michael (Rossif Sutherland) and young son Ira (Gage Graham-Arbuthnot), afraid that her experiences on the job might cause her to act out against her own family. Unsurprisingly, Tasya finds herself ill-equipped to overpower Colin’s will, which not only becomes aware that it is being invaded by someone else, but also fights back in equally personal and resolute ways.
Like we said at the start, it gets pretty bloody and vicious, not least when Colin maims John with a fire poker before fatally shooting Ava. A subsequent scene that has Colin taking revenge by hammering someone close to Tasya with a meat cleaver is no less shocking, concluding with a close-range shooting that we believe will jolt even the sturdiest of hearts. Cronenberg also portrays the disaffection within Colin’s mind as both Tasya and Colin tussle for control with some genuinely eerie imagery, aided by cinematographer Karim Hussain’s POV and shallow-focus shots.
Some may be tempted to draw parallels between the issues of identity, control and reality with modern conditions, but we’re not quite sure if Cronenberg intended for his film to be any more than the sort of unnerving horror thrillers which his surname has been known for in the cinematic genre. ‘Possessor’ will unsettle you all right, maybe even knock you off balance; and true to its title therefore, you’d best be prepared to be transfixed by this gripping tale of mind invasion and then some.
Movie Rating:
(If you're familiar with the name Cronenberg, you'll find this tale of mind invasion as hypnotic, unsettling and eerie as the ones that have come before from the venerated filmmaker)
Review by Gabriel Chong
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LIU KAI-CHI (廖启智) (1953 - 2021)Posted on 29 Mar 2021 |
Genre: Comedy
Director: Vincent Kok
Cast: Julian Cheung, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Eric Tsang, Louis Cheung, Billy Luk, Cecilia So, Cheung Tat-man, Michael Hui, Chin Kar-lok, Carlos Chan, Fiona Sit, Chrissie Chau, Kent Cheng, Candice Yu, Bob Lam, Louis Koo, Lam Ka-tung, Francis Ng, Alex Fong, Philip Keung, Gregory Charles Rivers, Ken Lo, Jackie Chan
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Sexual References)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:
Opening Day: 22 April 2021
Synopsis: When the Grande Hotel is suspected of being the source of a new outbreak of the coronavirus, the Epidemic Prevention Centre immediately orders for it to be completely sealed off. All of the guests staying in the hotel are forced to undergo 14 days of mandatory quarantine. Isolated from the outside world, the people begin to forge bonds as they reminisce over the normal lives that they have lost.
Movie Review:
Similar in fashion to what The Banquet (1991) did to raise funds for a flood relief and Twin Dragons (1992) to benefit the HK Film Directors’ Guild, as a gesture of goodwill to support the HK film industry, ten HK film companies and countless crew members decide to come together to produce All U Need Is Love where all proceeds will go on to benefit the film industry crew members whose income were badly affected by the pandemic. While the intention is certainly noble and charitable, that can’t be said about the overall quality of the final product.
Vincent Kok is roped in to write and helm this comedy set in the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak. Three coronavirus infected suspects played by Alex Fong, Gordon Lam and Francis Ng are revealed to have stayed at The Grande Hotel (read: 隔离酒店 in Chinese) after a brief interrogation by an pandemic task force officer, Louis Koo. Thus, those visitors that are currently staying or just happened to be at the hotel for other kind of businesses are forced to quarantine for 14 days by the pandemic task force.
That includes a soon-to-be married couple, William (Billy Luk) and Judy (Cecilia So) and her dad (Cheung Tat-man), loggerheads triad members Speed (Julian Cheung) and Diesel (Louis Cheung), Uncle Yin (Eric Tsang) and Uncle Kau (Tony Leung Kar-fai), hotel manager Chen (Carlos Chan) and single-parent chambermaid, Mango (Fiona Sit) and lastly, the boss of Grande, Tommy Lee (Michael Hui) and his brother (played by Chin Kar-lok) who are looking at various ways to escape the hotel to prevent being quarantined.
To say that Kok’s scripting from start to end is bland and witless is an understatement. And watching him recycling tropes from his past duds liked Hotel Deluxe and Love Is Pyjamas makes it even harder to digest. The briefly interconnected stories resemble failed SNL skits than a proper movie liked Julian Cheung and Louis Cheung crooning Baby Shark. Ultimate cringing. Although we must admit their segment together for the most part is pretty entertaining with the bromance factor at an all-time high. Veterans Eric Tsang and Tony Leung Ka-fai (the other Tony is probably busy fighting Shang-Chi in the MCU) stars as two horny uncles looking for a quick fling. Decent effort to spice up the atmosphere but never deliver anything remotely raunchy or funny.
Carlos Chan pairing with Fiona Sit forms the kind of enemies-turned lovers’ storyline that is very much awkward and unbelievable while Michael Hui and Chin Kar-lok teams up for a series of unsuccessful and inconsequential escapes via parachuting, diving their way out of an aquarium and crawling out of a ventilation duct. So that leaves the story of Billy Luk and Cecilia So which sadly is yet another dull tired affair.
As if to fill up the movie to a more desirable runtime of 90 minutes, Kok includes a pointless prolonged chase in the opening involving Alex Fong. Talkshow host/comedian Bob Lam appears later on by pulling some “Initial D” drifting and Jackie Chan kicking Ken Lo’s ass for no other reason other than being the movie’s biggest glorified cameo. Once again, Kok demonstrates his inability to come up with a decent entertaining script.
Having written half of Raymond Wong’s inept Lunar New Year productions, Kok continues to embarrass himself further with a title liked All U Need Is Love. The constant reminder on the importance of face masks and sanitizers feel like an extended advert from Ministry of Health. Additionally, the concluding message of spending precious time with your loved ones sound so dated in a contemporary comedy. It's so bad even his regular collaborators Sandra Ng, Teresa Mo and Ronald Cheng are conspicuously missing in this outing.
On hindsight, the film companies might as well spend the money on an action comedy directed by Chin Ka-lok. At least the box-office will be more desirable than this hot mess. The lack of a humorous script and a glaring lack of an A-list HK female actress is also a worrying trend. Indeed, instead of showcasing the hardwork contributed by the talents involved, it’s more of a display of the sorry stage of the ailing HK film industry.
Movie Rating:
(5 stars for the effort and intention, the rest is better left unsaid)
Review by Linus Tee
SYNOPSIS: J.D. Vance (Gabriel Basso), a former Marine from southern Ohio and current Yale Law student, is on the verge of landing his dream job when a family crisis forces him to return to the home he’s tried to forget. J.D. must navigate the complex dynamics of his Appalachian family, including his volatile relationship with his mother Bev (Amy Adams), who’s struggling with addiction. Fueled by memories of his grandmother Mamaw (Glenn Close), the resilient and whip-smart woman who raised him, J.D. comes to embrace his family’s indelible imprint on his own personal journey. Based on J.D. Vance’s #1 New York Times Bestseller and directed by Academy Award winner Ron Howard, HILLBILLY ELEGY is a powerful personal memoir that offers a window into one family’s personal journey of survival and triumph. By following three colorful generations through their unique struggles, J.D.’s family story explores the highs and lows that define his family’s experience.
MOVIE REVIEW:
A totally unrecognizable Glenn Close and Amy Adams plays a pair of mother-and-daughter in Ron Howard’s much maligned drama, Hillbilly Elegy which in turn is based on the memoir by J.D. Vance, a man who rose from a troubled family to attend Yale law school. Is it an inspirational drama or a complex study on poverty and dysfunctional families? Either way, it’s an enjoyable watching experience featuring two powerhouse actresses at their peak.
An adult J.D. Vance (Gabriel Basso) is attending Yale and busy working three jobs to finance his pricey education. He needs to land an internship urgently to continue his studies. But when his sister, Lindsay (Haley Bennett) calls, he is torn between going back to Ohio to attend to his mother, Bev (Adams) who has landed in hospital because of heroin abuse or staying on to look for an interview.
Hillbilly Elegy is a drama that constantly juggles between the past and present. Sometimes we see the present adult J.D. struggling to check his mum into a clinic. Sometime, we get flashbacks of a teenage J.D. under the charge of his beloved “mamaw” (Close) and his interactions with the emotionally volatile Bev. Probably it’s the death of his father or the pressure of her own troubled childhood that lead to the downfall of Bev. We never really know about Bev except she can’t keep her job as a nurse because of her drug issues and her frequent rotation of husbands.
“Mamaw” on the other hand didn’t have much of a good marriage either. In one particular flashback scene, we sees her setting fire to her drunk husband whom we presumed was also abusive towards her. It’s kind of troubling to learn that such issues exist in rural America though critics has hit out at Hillbilly Elegy for stereotyping and mere presenting a series of caricatures. Whether it’s Ron Howard and writer Vanessa Taylor being plain old dramatic with the material, the core of the story is written from the perspective of J.D. Vance, the man who lived through all the troubles, saved by his grandmother from falling into bad company and finally making it to Yale.
If there’s one slight problem with Hillbilly Elegy, it really never feels or adds up to a movie that is directed by an acclaimed filmmaker liked Ron Howard despite the cast assembled. Glenn Close and Amy Adams are terrific. With hours of makeup on, Close is intimating as a no-nonsense grandmother who will do anything for her grandson to go on the right path in life. Adams is screaming and wailing her heart out in nearly every scene as the opioid-addicted Bev. But the main lead however belongs to Gabriel Basso whose character spent most of his time reminiscing about his childhood, driving on the road and talking to his girlfriend, Usha (Freida Pinto) on the phone rather than doing something meaningful to drive his point and story across.
Hillbilly Elegy is a solid family drama best watched on the small screen. It’s a movie about an underdog achieving the American dream and escaping the poverty cycle while reflecting on the past. Perhaps one will be motivated by the efforts of J.D. Vance and his grandma. Those looking for a deeper narrative however might have to switch to another flick or the good old papers.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Darren Lynn Bousman
Cast: Chris Rock, Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols, Samuel L. Jackson
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins
Rating: R21 (Violence and Gore)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:
Opening Day: 13 May 2021
Synopsis: A sadistic mastermind unleashes a twisted form of justice in SPIRAL, the terrifying new chapter from the book of SAW. Working in the shadow of an esteemed police veteran (Samuel L. Jackson), brash Detective Ezekiel "Zeke" Banks (Chris Rock) and his rookie partner (Max Minghella) take charge of a grisly investigation into murders that are eerily reminiscent of the city's gruesome past. Unwittingly entrapped in a deepening mystery, Zeke finds himself at the center of the killer's morbid game.
Movie Review:
The collection of Saw films has shuttled along its timeline, but one fact remains - Jigsaw, the vigilante serial killer, is well and truly at rest. So what would it possibly take for a new episode to arise? It seems, a chance meeting between franchise fan Chris Rock and Lionsgate vice chairman, Michael Burns.
CEO Joe Drake bought into the idea of the comedian bringing in a fresh slant, where Rock’s gritty, hard-hitting humour will serve to punch up the deadly serious proceedings, but while Spiral does benefit from the stand-up’s wit, the newest chapter is dragged from its ambitious goals by a shoddy script, haphazard motivations, and a miscalculated deviation from its torture porn roots.
This is a surprise, given how many of the alumni have returned - from original creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell as executive producers, Darren Lynn Bousman as director and Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger as writers - promising a solid return. Yet it would seem that Saw’s box-office charm remains elusive to both experienced makers and enthusiastic admirer alike, given Spiral’s weak performance.
John Kramer has always been a fascinating figure, and episodes of the franchise helped us to move through his character development as the grand arc. With him gone, and the disciple and copycat premise explored, the studio turns Spiral into an investigative cop thriller instead. Sadly, the premise here is a dead horse beaten.
Rock is Detective Ezekiel “Zeke” Banks, a veteran unpopular at his station because he ratted a fellow cop out. He acts on his own terms, has a massive chip on his shoulder, is going through a divorce, and doesn’t want to be assigned his new partner - the black sheep anti-hero thing would be acceptable, if only his partner didn’t turn out to be his Myerr’s and Briggs’s predictable opposite.
Assigned to curb his renegade ways, rookie colleague William Schenk (Max Minghella) is the excited new kid on the block. He proudly announces his adulation for Zeke’s father, former station chief Marcus Bank (Samuel L. Jackson), shows off his family by tucking their picture in his partner’s car, and has his son’s name tattooed on his arm - we can take one cliche, but two?
Spiral does no one any favours with these tired tropes, and even less so when it’s hard to look past Rock’s lack of chemistry with his co-star. And let’s call it - some of this might have something to do with his very botoxed face. I’ve never felt so confused and (sorry, not sorry) unmoved looking at an angsty lead.
As cops at the station fall victim to the city’s new copycat killer, Banks must race against the clock to figure out the mastermind’s agenda. This is where loyal fans should find themselves appeased - the traps returns with their gory consequences, with rock-and-hard-place options testing their subject’s will to survive, but the new sequences feel tipped against the victim’s favour - and in some cases with the death shown first - thus taking the “poetic justice” piece out, leaving behind just mindless gore. Depending on what you deem as entertainment, the elegance of earlier chapters are lost in Spiral’s direction.
The franchise often winds up each chapter with breathless exposition, and Spiral’s no different. The film throws its fancy footwork of flashbacks and references together and whips it through a visual blend, but seasoned audiences may already have worked out the suspect much earlier on.
You see, this reviewer figures that the Saw formula of torture and justice still excites, as it speaks to our dark bloodlust. What the producers have cast in error, is to overstretch this philosophy and turned John Kramer’s meticulous and broader brand of vigilante into more of an individual’s self-serving form of punishment.
This episode stands on its own, and should be watched as such. Take Spiral more as a brief chapter instead of something meaty from the “Books of Saw”, and use it as a benchmark for further projects to move away from.
Movie Rating:
(The Saw DNA is still here, but poor handling and acting leaves the story shallow, if still bloody)
Review by Morgan Awyong
Genre: Comedy
Director: Mark Lee
Cast: Wong You Nam, Cecilia So, Jerry Lamb, Zeno Koo, Venus Wong, Adam Pak, Ben Yuen
Runtime: 1 hr 21 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Disturbing Scenes)
Released By: mm2 Entertainment
Official Website:
Opening Day: 1 April 2021
Synopsis: Many people are just living boring lives but have you wonder what will remain after you passed? Wang Xiao Gua works all day but still doesn’t have a car or even a house. In the afterlife after his death, he was arranged to become a contestant for the variety show Hell Bank Presents “ Running Ghost”. Wang Xiao Gua wishes to be the grand winner of the competition so that he can return and be together with the girl he likes, Bao Er. However, in the midst of the competition, he meets a teenage psychic Ling Qi. Ling Qi decided to help him in winning the competition but Wang Xiao Gua soon realized, winning the competition isn’t just about Bao Er anymore.
Movie Review:
Making its world premiere at last year’s New York Asian Film Festival, our local hyphenate Mark Lee’s sophomore full-length directorial effort (his first was Make It Big Big with his FM972 gang) is a mish-mash of horror, comedy and romance. A very decent effort we must add despite a rather crappish looking trailer.
As premises go, Hell Bank Presents: Running Ghost offers a tongue-in-cheek look at “modern-day” hell. Instead of burning flames all around and guarded by Ox-Head and Horse-Face, Hell is now a high-tech, cosmopolitan looking place run mostly by General Bull (Jerry Lamb) and features its own variety show called Running Ghost. The winner at the end of the day will get the chance to be reincarnated if he or she managed to win all three rounds. First, to successfully scare a human. Two, to possess one and the final round, to kill one.
Recently deceased cable guy Wang Hiu-kwai (Wong You-Nam) is thrown into the mix as an unwilling contestant. A slacker when he was still alive, Kwai has no ambitions and drive, his only passion is his love for his childhood friend, Bo Yee (Venus Wong). With the help of a ghost enthusiast Ling Kay (Cecilia So) who has a condition to help Gui by the way and fellow ghost buddy, Chong (Zeno Koo), Kwai manages to proceed to the next round. But is the love of Bo Yee alone enough to convince Kwai to carry on his mission and fulfill his “unfinished business” on earth?
To be fair, our three main protagonists each has a passable backstory to tell. Kwai is an orphan and because of his so-called love for Bo Yee, he wants to return to earth to protect her from her no-good, property agent boyfriend. As for Ling Kay, she is guilt-ridden for indirectly causing the death of her father and all she wants is a spirit who can contact the soul of her deceased father to see if he had forgiven her for the incident. Chong on the other hand has to relive his death all over and suffers torture at the self-help kiosks located on the 18th level of hell every night as a punishment for taking his own life.
With the exception of the opening, the story spends too little time on the variety show setting unfortunately. Little is developed on how the actual games worked. Maybe it works liked Running Man, can’t vouch on that though. Instead, there’s frequent play on words and we are sure you are going to giggle a little next time you see the signages of JP Morgan and Starbucks. Local renowned marketplace app Carousell makes a big product placement of all places, in Hell. Equally ineffective is there’s very little focus on Kwai’s fellow contestants which ironically featured an undeveloped super powerful baddie resulting in the lost of an opportunity to showcase some in need mayhem.
Hell Bank Presents: Running Ghost is seemingly focused on Kwai’s character, from a wimpy new ghost to one that actually saved the day. At least he gets a solid development which is probably the whole point of this movie. Although very much predictable and conventional, there’s a lot of heart and emotion invested in his story arc making it more of a romance horror than a straight out laugh fest. Truth be told, there’s only one particular scene that took place in a haunted flat unit that will have you chuckle out loud, the rest are plain mediocracy jabs or simply lost in translation.
On the whole, the CGI and makeup effects are fine. The movie which is shot entirely in Hong Kong and featured a slew of local cast is authentic and effective. Same goes to the camerawork and editing. The sparse sets however is a major letdown, quite an obvious embarrassment matter of fact. We can’t really say Hell Bank Presents is particularly noteworthy. But given more time, budget and effort, Golden Horse award nominee Mark Lee has the potential to surpass his mentor, Jack Neo anytime.
Movie Rating:
(Surprise, surprise. Mark Lee’s sophomore directing effort is pretty entertaining, has mass appeal but needs more word of mouth)
Review by Linus Tee
SYNOPSIS: Fresh off the triumph of solving her first case, Enola Holmes (Millie Bobby Brown) follows in the footsteps of her famous brother, Sherlock (Henry Cavill), and opens her own agency — only to find that life as a female detective-for-hire isn’t as easy as it seems. Resigned to accepting the cold realities of adulthood, she is about to close shop when a penniless matchstick girl offers Enola her first official job: to find her missing sister. But this case proves to be far more puzzling than expected, as Enola is thrown into a dangerous new world — from London’s sinister factories and colorful music halls, to the highest echelons of society and 221B Baker Street itself. As the sparks of a deadly conspiracy ignite, Enola must call upon the help of friends — and Sherlock himself — to unravel her mystery. The game, it seems, has found its feet again!
MOVIE REVIEW:
While Robert Downey Jr.’s third Sherlock Holmes outing has been in production limbo for years, the Holmes has found their way to the small screen except the fact that the focus is on Enola Holmes and Sherlock is played by Henry “Superman” Cavill.
Millie Bobby Brown is back to reprise the titular character in a sequel that is not based on the young adult book series by Nancy Springer but an original story borrowed or what Hollywood always say- inspired by the life of labour activist Sarah Chapman.
Co-written by director Harry Bradbeer and Jack Thorne (The Aeronauts), Enola decides to open her own detective agency after successfully solving her first case. Her first and only client is a penniless matchstick girl who requested Enola to help look for her missing sister who formerly worked at the matchstick factory. As always, things are not as simple as it seems. Soon enough, Enola is caught up in a web of deadly corruption and murder that she has no choice but to work with her older brother, Sherlock to solve the case.
For the most part, Bradbeer and Thorne keeps the pacing breezy and the narrative richer than its predecessor. Mostly, Brown is such a consummate performer that her often “act cute” is not overly irritable cute and she is as natural as Ryan Reynolds when it comes to breaking the fourth wall. The ever busy script requires Enola to juggle action, brains and romance (if you recall Lord Tewkesbury) in one tight package and Brown plays the underdog to near perfection that it’s hard to imagine someone else playing Enola Sherlock.
Devoting more screentime to Cavill this time round can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, we love to see Enola working on her own. On the other, it’s always welcome to see the prim and proper Baker Street detective in the mystery as well. Still, Cavill and Brown manages to entertain us with their occasional funny bantering and rousing case solving. Honestly, we can’t wait for Mycroft (played by Sam Clafin in the first) to join them in the third instalment.
Once again, Helena Bonham Carter returns for an extended cameo as Enola’s mother and together with Edith (Susie Wokoma) partake in the movie’s sole hair-raising horse chase sequence. Recurring character include Inspector Lestrade (Adeel Akhtar) and the familiar David Thewlis expectedly portrayed an unfavourable villain.
Even though it’s technically aimed for the young adult crowd, the writing remains a draw and refuses to dumb things down. Fortunately, of course given that it’s mandatory to include Sherlockian twists and swings for a Sherlock theme flick. A certain Moriarty and John Watson is also introduced paving the way for a far more exciting road ahead for the Legendary and Netflix franchise.
The only drawback is the somewhat poor visual effects employed and obvious lacking in location shooting though credit should go to the costume department for the ball sequence. Again, we must emphasize that Enola Holmes 2 is one of those rare movies that deserved more instalments to come. Feminist tale or not, we are already rooting for 3!
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
Genre: Drama
Director: Robin Wright
Cast: Robin Wright, Demián Bichir, Kim Dickens, Sarah Dawn Pledge
Runtime: 1 hr 29 mins
Rating: NC16 (Some Nudity)
Released By: UIP
Official Website:
Opening Day: 22 April 2021
Synopsis: A story about healing and the transcendent power of human kindness, Land follows the journey of a woman searching for a new way to live in the wake of a life - altering loss. Edee Holzer (Robin Wright) removes herself from society to embark on a solitary existence in the remote mountain wilderness of Wyoming. Living off the grid without no prior wilderness experience, Edee is buffeted by the elements and unprepared for nature’s formidable realities. She struggles mightily against odds that grow steeper by the day, but a timely encounter with a local man, Miguel Borras (Demián Bic hir), opens the door to deeper understanding of nature as he teaches her the skills she needs to survive. An unexpected friendship develops between two wounded souls, and a bond that confers healing and grace.
Movie Review:
Even though she’s directed a couple of episodes of ‘House of Cards’, it’s surprising to see how confident a director Robin Wright is in her feature debut. Directing herself in the title role, ‘Land’ sees the actress commit herself wholeheartedly to the tale of a grieving woman who seeks solace by going off the grid to live in a remote Wyoming cabin in the mountains.
At least initially, Wright chooses to reveal little about what had happened to Edee; all we know is that she had probably suffered some deep personal trauma, as evinced by snippets of her therapy session in a darkened office and a heated exchange between her and her friend Emma (Kim Dickens). Lest you think that it is all but a ploy to build suspense, we can assure you that it is not; instead, Wright chooses not to overplay the obvious tragedy, so as to focus the attention on her process of grief and subsequent reconciliation.
Edee’s journey to find solitude ends in a neglected hunting cabin on a parcel of land at the top of a long dirt road, and for much of the first and second act, ‘Land’ is pretty much a solo show that sees Edee struggle to come to terms with the harsh elements of nature. It is sobering to say the least, what with Edee learning to cope with wolves at night, a bear that ransacks the cabin in broad daylight and basic supplies of food and fuel for the harsh winter. Wright throws herself completely into the role, which allows her in her capacity as director to capture Edee’s vulnerabilities with raw intimacy.
Try though she does, Edee is ill-prepared for the harsh winter, and is ultimately rescued from death’s door by the hunter Miguel (Demian Bichir). With help from his sister, a nurse, Miguel nurses her back to health. When she is better, Miguel offers to teach Edee to trap, hunt and survive in the wilderness. Don’t be tempted though to simply think that Edee will find new company in life with Miguel; those who are familiar with Wright’s oeuvre will know that she is hardly a romantic actress, and she is therefore hardly likely to turn this into some sort of romance drama.
Yet it is also true that Edee and Miguel will forge a connection, one that we’d describe as both heartfelt and poetic. “Why are you helping me?” Edee asks. “You were in my path,” he says. It is befitting that we should discover the extent of Edee’s heartbreak as the friendship between these two wounded yet resilient souls develops, and it is to the credit of both Wright and Bichir that they manage with the barest of words exchanged to develop such a profound and resounding bond with each other.
Though it is somewhat inevitable that ‘Land’ will be overshadowed by ‘Nomadland’, this quiet and beautiful film deserves its own audience. With utmost restraint and nuance, Wright delivers a elegiac picture about how grief can threaten to overwhelm one’s existence, and how in such circumstances it may do well to simply rediscover what it means to be alive and living. Of note too is the breathtaking Atlanta locations against which cinematographer Bobby Bukowski has shot the movie, that add to the intensity and immediacy of Edee’s environment. And with ‘Land, Wright establishes herself as a filmmaker in her own right, one who knows and understands what poignancy without artifice means.
Movie Rating:
(Elegiac, understated yet deeply poignant, 'Land' is a beautiful solo show by Robin Wright whether as actor or director)
Review by Gabriel Chong
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