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SYNOPSIS: A Cheng is a kind-hearted debt collector who meets the debt-ridden Hao Ting. A Cheng becomes deeply attracted to her after seeing her uncomplainingly care for her ailing father and learning that she is shouldering the debt on her own. He eases her burden with a tailor-made repayment scheme: debt reduction in exchange for dates with him. When she has lowered her defenses enough to accept A Cheng's heart, a series of events lead to a bumpy road ahead.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Man In Love is more or less, a straight-out remake of the Korean version which stars Hwang Jung-min. Instead of a character actor liked Hwang, this Taiwanese version stars Roy Chiu (Dear Ex) who is obviously easy on the eyes and the gorgeous looking Tiffany Hsu (The Tag Along). With the pairing of Chiu and Hsu, that will be half the battle won. But don’t take our word for it, Man In Love indeed was a box-office hit when it was released earlier this year in Taiwan.

Chiu plays A Cheng, a boorish, loan shark runner with a big heart. Despite his unorthodox ways of collecting bad debts, he helps to defer payment or collect a lesser amount from some of his desperate debtors. During one of his debt collecting sessions, Cheng met Hao Ting (Tsu), a bank teller working hard to take care of her ailing dad and piling hospital bills. Cheng developed an instant liking to her and tried ways to persuade Ting to go on dates with him.

Despite the odds, Cheng and Hao Ting start a romantic relationship shortly after the demise of Ting’s dad. With compensation from her dad’s insurance and savings, Ting plans to start a beverage business while Cheng proposes to start a family with her and quit his role as a loan shark runner. As expected, “things” happened and the lovebirds are sadly torn apart.

This is definitely not a happily-ever-after type of rom-com, the kind that you expect it to be. The first half of the story does indeed contain a rather wacky tone which might led many to think that it’s a light-hearted love story. On the contrary, it turned more and more depressed as the story goes. For a start, Cheng ends up being conned by his employer and subsequently developed a brain tumour. You know tearjerker stuff and more.

At the core of the flick is the triumphant message of a hooligan turns good. Some might lament it’s a little too late for the character but end of the day, Cheng manages to earn his redemption. Kind of ironic when you think of it. There are moments in the movie that could have benefited from a tighter edit. In fact, we wanted to see more of Cheng and Ting being all lovey-dovey yet Man In Love prefers to delve more onto life’s big issues and misfortunes.

There’s even a side story of Cheng’s dementia dad (Hokkien pop singer Tsai Chen-nan) which gets some attention here and there. Frankly speaking, there’s enough melodrama to fill up three more full-length movies and tears to fill up buckets. Fortunately, with the weight of the entire movie resting squarely on Roy and Tiffany’s shoulders, they did an excellent job making the entire affair low-key, endearing and heartfelt.

Man In Love with all its excesses, is still a recommended weepie. Expect sniffles and snobs in the last 30 minutes.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee

Genre: CG Animation
Director: Cal Brunker
Cast: Iain Armitage, Marsai Martin, Ron Pardo, Yara Shahidi, Kim Kardashian West, Randall Park, Dax Shepard, Tyler Perry, Jimmy Kimmel, Will Brisbin
Runtime: 1 hr 26 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: UIP
Official Website:

Opening Day: 9 September 2021

Synopsis: The PAW Patrol is on a roll! When their biggest rival, Humdinger, becomes Mayor of nearby Adventure City and starts wreaking havoc, Ryder and everyone’s fav orite heroic pups kick into high gear to face the challenge head on. While one pup must face his past in Adventure City, the team finds help from a new ally, the savvy dachshund Liberty. Together, armed with exciting new gadgets and gear, the PAW Patrol fights to save the citizens of Adventure City!

Movie Review:

Unless you’re a parent of a kid below the age of 12, you probably won’t be enthused by this big-screen adventure of the puppy heroes of the hit Nickelodeon animated series. Comprising a team of dogs led by 10-year-old Ryder, the Paw Patrol are the heroes of the seaside town of Adventure Bay, using their skills in firefighting, aviation and policing alongside a dizzying array of high-tech gadgets to stop the fiendish Mayor Humdinger and his pack of six Kitty Catastrophe Crew.

And yet it is precisely because of such expectations that leave us proud to declare that ‘Paw Patrol: The Movie’ is surprisingly enjoyable, buoyed not only by its infectiously peppy spirit but also its all-around sweetly earnest disposition. Those are the very same qualities that have made the series so popular since its debut back in 2013, earning fans among the pre-school and grade-school set as well as plaudits from parents and even Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Though it introduces us to Ryder (voiced by Will Brisbin) and his team of pups by way of a mission to rescue a stranded truck driver stuck in his vehicle dangling over a bridge just outside Adventure Bay, most of the action unfolds in the neighbouring Adventure City, where Mayor Humdinger (Ron Pardo) has just won the city’s elections by eliminating any competition. Sensing that the mayor is up to no good, the group’s number one superfan Liberty (Marsai Martin) call them for help to avert the chaos she is sure will ensue.

While firefighter Marshall (Kingsley Marshall), pilot Skye (Lilly Bartlam), bulldozing bulldog Rubble (Keegan Hedley), recycling handypup Rocky (Callum Shoniker) and aquatic rescuer Zuma (Shayle Simons) are excited for their big-city adventure, their leader and police dog Chase (Iain Armitage) is hesitant, recalling his early years as a scared stray wandering the streets of the city. True enough, those memories will come back to haunt Chase, as he loses his nerves and judgment over two successive operations involving an incident of fireworks gone rogue and another of a subway train stuck in a loop-de-loop.

Will Chase eventually overcome his insecurities and prove himself to be the hero he has always been? Will his team accept him back into the fold? Will they save Adventure City from the peril wrought by Mayor Humbinger’s hubris? Let’s face it: given its target audience, there should never have been any doubt how this adventure would end. And yet, that the journey proves no less engaging is credit to director Cal Brunker and his co-writers Billy Frolick and Bob Farlen, who keep the pace brisk, the humour droll and the action aplenty.

Like we said, there is no cynicism to be found here; instead, true to the spirit of the TV series, the tone is consistently genuine and genuinely good-hearted. It is precisely this disposition that makes its lessons about courage, team spirit and self-confidence ring true, and all the more satisfying for parents accompanying their children to the cinema. To be sure though, it’s also a diverting enough animation on its own, so those who have been dragged to it by their kids at least won’t feel as if it were 88 minutes of their time they would never get back.

No one should and would walk into ‘Paw Patrol: The Movie’ expecting Pixar-level quality, but as a big-screen extension of the animated series, this outing will do just fine both for kids and their adult companions. Indeed, this is as true and through a good old-fashioned family-friendly animated adventure as it gets, so whether you had a choice going with your kids to the movies for this, we dare say you will find yourself enjoying it much, much more than you’d probably imagine.

Movie Rating:

(Packed with adventure, humour and warmth, this friendly-for-all-ages animated movie is great for kids and perhaps even their adult companions)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Horror/Mystery
Director: Kim Yong Wan
Cast: Uhm Ji Won, Jeong Ji So, Jeong Moon Sung, Kim In Kwon, Go Kyu Pil
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Disturbing Scenes)
Released By: Encore Films and Golden Village Pictures
Official Website:

Opening Day: 9 September 2021

Synopsis: The body of a murder suspect is discovered next to the victim at the crime scene, but it turns out to be a corpse that has been dead for three months, throwing the police investigation into disarray. Meanwhile, an investigative journalist, LIM Jin-hee, receives a call from a listener while appearing on a radio show. The caller claims to be the culprit behind the mysterious murder, and requests Jin-hee to interview him live on camera. With the police on standby and the excited public turning in, the man appears for the interview as promised. He warns of three more murders to come, which will be carried out by... revived corpses. On the day of the first forewarned murder, an army of walking dead appears and catches the police off guard with an all-out attack. Who is behind it all, and for what reason?

Movie Review:

When you have the director of the phenomenal Train to Busan penning the script of your horror movie, you’d take every opportunity to market that. Naturally, this spin off of a TV drama series does just that and teases you that the thrill level will be as high as the 2016 movie. While we know that it’s definitely not going to be as captivating as the movie that broke the audience record of over 10 million theatergoers, it still did a decent job of keeping us at the edge of our seats.

The premise is simple and intriguing enough: a dead murderer wants an apology from the CEO of a pharmaceutical company, and it is up to the protagonists of the movie to find out what really is happening before zombies go amok. The lead is an investigative journalist a call from someone claiming to be the killer, requesting a live stream of a public apology. If it doesn’t happen, someone from the company will be murdered each day. There is also a teenager who has supernatural powers to connect with undead monsters, and there is some shamanic power that allows zombies to move under the control of a medium, which makes them more powerful than ever.

While this reviewer did not watch the TV drama this movie was based on, a quick check online shows that the series also incorporated elements of a supernatural force which involves causing death with a person’s belongings. Audiences who are fans of the TV drama would be able to better appreciate to the themes and characters of the movie, but in general, that doesn’t pose as a huge problem because this horror mystery still manages to stand alone as a fairly entertaining piece of work.

There is much girl power as Uhm Ji Won and Jeong Ji So take on the main roles as the curious investigator and the cryptic teenager respectively. They have a natural chemistry, which serves the plot well as they are supposed to be regular collaborators.

There are several action scenes, but the standout is chase sequence that sees a swarm of rampaging zombies fill up the screen, suggesting that there was plenty of budget to play with for the movie’s production. Besides being an investigative drama, the movie also attempts to explore the ugly side of big conglomerates, as well as how migrant workers are less respected in Korea. While these storylines add dimensions to the movie, one wishes they could be tighter because we just want to see more zombies attack the human race in broad daylight.

Running at 110 minutes, the movie is well paced without feeling like a drag. How it stands out from most zombie flicks is that the monsters in this film are supposedly more intelligent because of the shamanic spell, which makes them more dangerous and more difficult to fend off. This makes for a fresh take on what we’ve grown to be familiar with, but there is also this nagging feeling that more can be done to make this movie reach the height of Train to Busan’s level of excitement.

Movie Rating:

(Smarter and more dangerous zombies are on the rampage, and it makes this horror mystery a decent piece of entertainment)

Review by John Li

Genre: Drama
Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Cast: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Masaki Okada, Toko Miura, Jin Daeyeon, Reika Kirishima, Park Yurim, Sonia Yuan, Ahn Hwitae, Perry Dizon, Satoko Abe
Runtime: 2 hrs 59 mins
Rating: R21 (Sexual Scenes)
Released By: Lighthouse Pictures and The Projector
Official Website:

Opening Day: 9 September 2021

Synopsis: Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a stage actor and director is happily married to Oto (Reika Kirishima), a screenwriter. However, Oto suddenly dies after leaving behind a secret. Two years later, Kafuku, still unable to fully cope with the loss of his wife, receives an offer to direct a play at a theater festival and drives to Hiroshima with his car. There, he meets Misaki (Toko Miura), a reticent woman assigned to become his chauffeur. As they spend time together, Kafuku confronts the mystery of his wife that quietly haunts him.

Movie Review:

The very fact that there is a film based on Japanese writer Haruki Murakami’s work is a reason for cinephiles to get excited. Known for exploring existential and surrealistic themes in his stories, the celebrated author’s words are often relatable to the human soul, especially if one finds himself to be spiritually lost. It is almost exhilarating to see how a film can visually translate Murakami’s works on screen. Titles we’ve seen that have struck an emotional chord (albeit to different levels) include Tony Takitani (2004), Norwegian Wood (2010) and Burning (2018).

The latest adaptation is directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, and is based on a short story of the same name from the 2014 collection Men Without Women. The 30 page story is transformed beautifully into a three hour film about loss and grief. After watching the film, you'll understand why it won the Best Screenplay, the FIPRESCI Prize and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

The protagonist is Yūsuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a theatre practitioner who is mourning the loss of his wife Oto (Reika Kirishima) when she dies from cerebral haemorrhage. Their relationship has been somewhat strained, with the death of their young daughter and Oto’s infidelity. Yet, there is a peculiar balance as the two scarred individuals rely on each other for emotional solace.

The opening credits appear on screen after the above prologue, about 40 minutes into the film. You prepare yourself to follow Yūsuke as he heads to Hiroshimato direct Anton Chekhov's classic drama Uncle Vanya. Besides having to work with a multilingual ensemble cast, he is forced to use a chauffeur in the form of Misaki (Toki Miura) because of a local regulation. Over the next two hours in the film, you are brought along for the ride as Yūsuke’s encounters with different characters help him find closure This includes a young actor Takatsuki (Masaki Okada), who may have been one of the men his deceased wife was seeing, and of course, the seemingly nonchalant driver who has her own demons to purge.

Running at 179 minutes and at an unhurried pace, this is naturally not a film for viewers who are used to blockbuster movies. But this is also the perfect opportunity for you to slow down your rushed way of life, take stock of what life has given and taken away, and ponder whether there is a glorious resting point at the end of the journey. This is affectingly illustrated in one of the last sequences of the film, where we see a mute Korean woman acting the monologue from Uncle Vanya.

Some of the best scenes take place in the red Saab 900, a vintage two door car lovingly owned by Yūsuke. Like how we engage in conversations (although sometimes unwillingly) with the driver during overseas road trips, the setting allows characters to share their true feelings. One sequence as Okada’s somewhat unlikeable young man talking to Yūsuke – it is a tension filled conversation about the woman whom both men have loved on different levels. More therapeutic conversations take place between Yūsuke and Misaki – they allow both characters to come to terms with what have haunted them for almost a lifetime. The effect on viewers is healing as well, and that’s why this long ride in the theatre is worth your time.

Movie Rating:

(Can one truly find closure after a tragedy? While this slow-burning drama heals its grieving protagonist, it attempts to get viewers to come to terms with life's complexities.)

Review by John Li

SYNOPSIS: In this raw and raunchy comedy, straight-laced Marcus and Emily (Howery, Orji) are befriended by wild, thrill-seeking partiers Ron and Kyla (Cena, Hagner) at a resort in Mexico. Living in the moment, the usually level-headed couple lets loose to enjoy a week of uninhibited fun and debauchery with their new “vacation friends.” Months after their walk on the wild side, Marcus and Emily are horrified when Ron and Kyla show up uninvited at their wedding, creating chaos and proving that what happens on vacation, doesn’t necessarily stay on vacation.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Besides Dwayne Johnson, John Cena is the next best wrestler turned actor because his acting range is as good as the latter if not better. Cena has showcased his comedic chops in Trainwreck, Blockers and Daddy’s Home 2 and now proven he is the heart and soul of Vacation Friends, one of the last releases that came out of the 21st Century Fox era.

Vacation Friends is not exactly the kind of laugh-out-loud raunchy comedies that Hollywood regularly churned out. In fact, it sits somewhere between slightly funny and flat out boring and this is despite the presence of Cena and Lil Rey Howery (Free Guy).

Marcus Parker (Lil Rey Howery) is a boss of a construction company and he is about to propose to his girlfriend, Emily (Yvonne Orji) on a vacation to Mexico. But things didn’t go as planned and just when Marcus thought his plan is ruined, they met a free-spirited couple, Ron (Cena) and Kyla (Meredith Hagner) who offers to share their presidential suite and yacht. While the uptight Marcus is reserved at first, he slowly warmed up to Ron and Kyla after a series of alcohol and cocaine-filled escapades.

Just when Marcus and Emily thought their friendship with Ron and Kyla is a one-time thingy, Ron and Kyla turned up uninvited to their wedding unleashing a series of mayhem and revelation. Now it’s up to Marcus to handle Emily’s disapproving dad, his touchy brother-in-law and a free-wheeling Ron. All at the same time.

Two out of the five credited writers, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley actually wrote and directed Vacation, the continuation of the National Lampoon franchise. It’s largely a forgettable comedy but it has it’s moments. One would expect a movie liked Vacation Friends to contain a slew of jokes and gags with a bit of heart thrown in. Formula as they say. However, comparing this to Vacation, you will be hard pressed to find a single worthy gag except probably the part where Marcus dropped his wedding rings.

Right from the start, the movie sputters with endless montages of the main characters getting drunk and stoned. Then there is a repetitive scene of Marcus and Ron getting stoned during a fox hunt later on. Sadly, there’s little that tickles your funny bone. We wonder where are all the punchlines and gross out gags. Come on, at least give us something nasty to laugh at.

There’s an obvious reason why Vacation Friends skipped the theatrical release. It’s too long and way too humourless to warrant a ticket during a pandemic and this is despite Cena being absolutely bonkers and over-the-top. He deserves all the credit he needs because there’s not much of a movie in the first place without him.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Shim Duck-geun
Cast: Kim Kang-woo, Kim So-hye, Lee Jung-hyoung, Hong Jin-gi
Runtime: 1 hr 26 mins
Rating: NC16 (Horror and Some Violence)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:

Opening Day: 23 September 2021

Synopsis: One night at a secluded community centre, the custodian murdered all the guest lodgers and killed himself. Ever since, on every Old Year’s Night, paranormal events began to take place within the building. Eventually, the centre was shut down and left abandoned for years. Do-jin, a renowned paranormal investigator, had lost his mother to a mysterious incident while she was performing an exorcism at the community centre. Ridden with guilt and grief, Do-jin headed over to the community centre, resolved to uncover the buried secrets. Determined to win a video contest and its prize money, three college students decided to capture a glimpse of the rumoured paranormal events on Old Year’s Night.

Movie Review:

For all the modernity that surrounds Singapore, there’s always something about Asian rituals and ghosts that unnerve even the most disbelieving of us. In the case of Guimoon: The Lightless Door, director Shim Duck-geun leads us down a rabbit hole of hereditary spiritual work, trapped souls and superstitious lore, filled with a core of vengeance.

A female shaman attempts to exorcise an aggressive entity that’s keeping an old community centre haunted, rumoured to be the custodian who went amok during his shift and murdered the lodgers on the third floor before hanging himself. His motives were never uncovered, but his ongoing menace and the discovery of a body in a wall, perfectly preserved, is enough to have the locals asking for help. But halfway through the ritual, the shaman commits suicide instead.

Do-jin (Kim Kang Woo) is the shaman’s son, who’s imbued with the same talent as his mother, albeit a much more reluctant one. In his attempt to find reprieve from his grief, he returns to the block on Old Year’s Night to open a Guimoon - a doorway that lets him enter a space where the living and dead intersect. He reasons that when all the trapped souls are freed, he can then safely exorcise the custodian and save his mother afterwards.

At the same time, a trio of college kids are hoping to capture supernatural phenomena in the building, as a running contest is giving out serious cash for truly horrific content. They chose the same night to visit the building to see if an old lore is true - that a full moon can be seen on the rooftop of the building when there’s none in real life.

Moviegoers will know nothing’s going to be that straightforward. As Do-jin uses the guest records to hunt down the souls, he starts finding others that were not on the list. And for the college kids, it dawns upon them they are going to be in trouble when they see the rumours have very tangible effects.

The premise of Guimoon excited me because the contrast in attitudes between the two groups made for great opposing dynamics. And with a strong core mission from Do-Jin, the movie was off to a good start. Unfortunately, this peters out by the middle of the film.

At the beginning, there was a clear silhouette satisfyingly forming in the film as we uncovered each resident’s background, because it not only added a richer universe with their stories but also provided opportunities for some of the better scares. But for some reason, Shim abandons this route when Do-Jin meets the students, and afterwards, it’s just a mad escape for the entire group. Coming from the original premise, this felt like a sad copout.

Secondly, there was an artistry attached to the earlier scenes that also disappeared in the latter half. Abstract shots of tree branches and eerie cutaways lent a forlorn quality to build the mood, but it was all given up to bad make-up effects and cliche tropes (that convenient gimmick of handheld lights going off and coming back on) later on. Seriously, what happened? Did they change scriptwriters halfway? Guimoon sometimes comes across as two separate films.

It’s unfortunate because Kim is an excellent actor and creates delightful tension with his performances. Scenes like the one where he first enters the building and escapes from the murderous caretaker and the sound of his shovel is wonderfully taut, but it later turns a little manic with a lot of random flailing, with too much focus leaning towards the less-talented group of kids - maybe because the girl in the group is singer Kim So-hye?

If Guimoon had followed through on the more compelling plot of Do-jin’s redemption and less on the predictable twist in the third act, there would have been so much more meat and ample scares. But with its awkward steering, the film becomes run-of-the-mill, with still some creepy moments but not enough to save it from mediocrity.

Movie Rating:

(Promising setup doesn’t realise its direction, which sadly slides the scares into all-too-familiar territory)

Review by Morgan Awyong

SYNOPSIS: Desperate to save his ailing mother, 11-year-old Gunner runs away from home on a quest to find a mythical figure rumored to have the power to cheat death.

MOVIE REVIEW:

The Water Man in The Water Man refers to a local legend in a rural small town whereby an immortal man is rumored to be roaming the forest with a magical stone believed to be able to revive the dead.

Our young protagonist, Gunner Boone (Lonnie Chavis) whose mother, Mary (Rosario Dawson) is suffering from terminal leukemia decides to venture into the forest with a runway, Jo (Amiah Miller) to search for the water man. Similar to Jo, Gunner has a somewhat estranged, distanced relationship with his Marine father, Amos (David Oyelowo making his directorial debut). Gunner who loves spending his time reading and coming out with his own graphic novels feels he will never live up to his father’s expectations.

Well, perhaps Gunner’s little adventure into the forest will demonstrate the extend of Amos’ love for his son.

The Water Man is a family movie that deals with identity and family on top of courage and the issue of death. Obviously, this is not a big-budgeted fantasy flick that’s going to take you to Narnia or Hogwarts. Director Oyelowo and screenwriter Emma Needell cleverly keeps everything grounded in reality occasional peppering the tale with creepy insects and growls from wild animals. Perhaps the water man is lurking in the dark forest or is it simply Gunner and Jo’s imagination?

The depth of the screenplay is also enhanced by computer animated wonder and for the most part, the movie is enriched by the charming chemistry of young actors, Chavis and Miller. Gunner naively believes Jo has encountered the water man before and the scar on the neck is the proof of it. In actual fact, Jo has run away from his abusive father and she is eyeing Gunner’s stash of money. Eventually, there is a happy ending after their massive adventure in the burning forest much of that owes to Amiah Miller’s natural flair and Lonnie Chavis’s perfect handling of his character which packs a whole lot of emotional punch.

Beside Oyelowo, The Water Man also features strong performance from Rosario Dawson as Gunner’s ailing but loving mother. Alfred Molin appears briefly as a caretaker who feeds Gunner with the folksy horror tale while Maria Bello is underused as the local Sheriff.

Although the movie doesn’t shy away from tackling life’s big issues which make it an obvious learning point, the plotting does meanders at times killing the momentum. Frankly, the movie’s main qualities are persuading the young ones to preserve on with their dreams and imparting serious lessons about life. Authentic and mature, it should worth a peek for families in search of a pleasing educational movie. The cinematography is a plus as well.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee

Genre: Thriller
Director: Adam Robitel
Cast: Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Indya Moore, Holland Roden, Thomas Cocquerel, Carlito Olivero
Runtime: 1 hr 28 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Coarse Language and Intense Sequences)
Released By: Sony Pictures
Official Website:

Opening Day: 16 September 2021

Synopsis: Escape Room: Tournament of Champions is the sequel to the box office hit psychological thriller that terrified audiences around the world. In this installment, six people unwittingly find themselves locked in another series of escape rooms, slowly uncovering what they have in common to survive…and discovering they’ve all played the game before.

Movie Review:

For the uninitiated, ‘Escape Room’ saw a group of strangers being forced to play a series of deadly logic puzzles for their lives; two of them managed to survive and vowed to expose the persons behind the game, who had trapped them within for sport. Given how it was a sleeper hit back in summer 2019, it is no surprise that a sequel was quickly greenlit.

‘Escape Room: Tournament of Champions’ picks up right after where the original left off, with returning director Adam Robitel throwing these two survivors – Zoey (Taylor Russell) and Ben (Logan Miller) – into yet another series of death traps together with four other survivors of their respective tournaments.

Whereas the first movie was a tight little thriller that featured a genuinely likeable bunch of characters, this sequel lacks the same excitement, even as it tries to up the lavishness of the death chambers themselves. Indeed, as elaborately conceived as they are, one rarely senses any real stakes involved, simply because the pacing is too busy to let its audience truly appreciate the puzzles, the clues or the supposed ingenuity of the characters playing these games.

Indeed, within the span of 88 minutes, Robitel rushes his audience through no less than four such set-pieces, including an electrified subway car, an art deco bank lobby, an oceanfront mockup of sinking sand, and a fake New York City block showered by acid rain.

Ironically, the most well-choreographed one is the very first, which finds Zoey and Ben having to break the ice with the other inhabitants while trying to locate missing letters on advertisements around the metal train car in order to collect tokens to stop the electrocution chamber. In contrast, the rubrics of the other games seem clumsy, such that not only are the specifics too convoluted to intrigue, the players themselves also end up making unbelievable leaps of logic to beat the ticking clock within these games. For sure, none of the puzzles here match up to the upside-down pool hall in the original, which ultimately makes this sequel inferior.

Neither do Robitel’s team of writers manage to make us care much about the people in peril. Any sentimentality attached to Zoey and/or Ben is largely credit to the 2019 original (and would therefore escape those who had not seen it), while there is little to empathise with the influencer Brianna (Indya Moore), nerve-damaged Rachel (Holland Roden), fallen priest Nathan (Thomas Cocquerel) and tough guy Theo (Carlito Olivero) whose presence seems to be really to just make up the numbers.

Only towards the end does the film try to up the emotional quotient by introducing us to Minos, the company behind the escape rooms who had been pulling the strings all along. Even so, it comes too little too late, especially in redeeming the movie from its own earlier humdrum; in fact, we dare say that we know less about the puppet masters behind the games than we did in the original, and it is disappointing that Robitel decided to drag out the inevitable confrontation between Zoey and Minos to the next franchise entry.

Oh yes, the ending leaves it wide open for yet another chapter in what its studio probably hoped to be a lucrative franchise. Yet as flashy and diverting as it may be during its brief runtime, there is hardly anything memorable or significant about this sequel which should make you look forward to the next entry. The worst thing about such games isn’t the feeling of frustration if you cannot manage to crack a particular game, but feeling bored and uninvolved by it; unfortunately, that is exactly what this ‘Tournament of Champions’ is guilty of.

Movie Rating:

(Too frenetic and absurd to be involving, intriguing, let alone thrilling, this high-concept but lowlily-executed sequel will leave you bored)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Director: Peter Facinelli
Cast: Thomas Jane, Anne Heche, Jason Patric, Gregory Harrison, Aleksei Archer, Kristopher Wente, John Hickman, Alex Haydon, Peter Facinelli
Runtime: 1 hr 55 mins
Rating: NC16 (Sexual Scene and Drug Use)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:

Opening Day: 16 September 2021

Synopsis: The story charts the fallout after a ten-year-old girl goes missing from an RV park. The girl’s father (Thomas Jane) and mother (Anne Heche) take justice into their own hands, stopping at nothing to track their daughter down. As they fall deeper into the search, a tragic revelation is uncovered, deepening the mystery of the girl’s disappearance.

Movie Review:

The only noteworthy thing to come out of a movie liked The Vanished is seeing how far the main actors have age over the years. People whom we have known from their screen appearances from way back. Some gracefully, some remains dapper while some totally unrecognizable.

We are going to leave it to you to classify which actors belong to which category because this is the only entertaining aspect of this preposterous, dead-on-arrival psychological thriller.

Directed and written by actor Peter Facinelli (Dr Cullen from the Twilight series), The Vanished is about a family of three who decides to spend their vacation in their RV at a remote camp site only for the couple’s daughter, Taylor to be ended up missing shortly after arrival. Of course, the police are called and the Sheriff (Jason Patric from Speed 2: Cruise Control) in charge speculates it could be the work of an escaped convict though unlikely. Paul (Thomas Jane the original Punisher) and Wendy Michaelson (Anne Heche from Six Days, Seven Nights) however decides to take things into their own hands and begin to embark on their own investigations.

At first, they suspect it could be their neighbouring loving childless couple, Eric and Miranda who kidnapped their daughter. Or perhaps the creepy campsite groundkeeper, Justin. Even the campsite manager looks suspicious. Hell, it could be anyone even perhaps Sheriff Baker who lost his son. As the days go on without news of Taylor, Paul and Wendy frequently gets into quarrels, fights and wait for it…cold-blooded murders!

Is there a hidden conspiracy involving aliens and monsters? Or is there something sinisterly wrong with Paul and Wendy? You know what? We rather take theory number one anytime. Facinelli is very much out of his depth with The Vanished. For one, he thinks peppering the movie with lots of loud pounding sound effects and cheap jump scares actually make the movie better. You know it isn’t.

Despite the kidnapping premise, the movie labours on without much tension or a twist except Heche’s character going berserk every now and then. By the way, she is not going to win any prize for all that screaming. Thomas Jane seems totally helpless opposite his co-star and he looks more lost than grieving. Jason Patric on the other hand just seems bored, probably as bored as the audiences. His role is on par with any current Bruce Willis’ direct-to-video characters and that’s not a compliment.

We are never kept on the edge of the seats throughout. The numerous red herrings are laughable. The pacing is so sloppy that you can squeeze in a comedy inbetween and no one notices. It’s kind of bizarre that for a movie filled with gaping logics and ludicrous twists gets the green light for production. The final revelation in the third act is another nail in the coffin. Hollywood needs to do better so does Peter Facinelli.

Movie Rating:

(Like a bad magic trick revealed, you wish this should vanish in the first place)

Review by Linus Tee