SYNOPSIS: After a software glitch causes an advanced AI program to fall in love with a young woman, it escapes into the body of a man and tries to win her heart.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Mario Maurer (Pee Mak) and Pimchanok Luevisadpaibul (The Con-Heartist) pairs up once again after their successful Crazy Little Thing Called Love which was liked a decade ago. Maybe certain things in this world should be left as it is especially after watching their latest collaboration, AI Love You.
Thai-French actor and filmmaker David Asavanond and visual effect artist Stephan Zlotescu co-directs this sci-fi drama which tries hard to blend technology and romance to tell a modern love story set in a near futuristic Bangkok.
In a world where buildings and apartments are run by artificial intelligence robots, an AI dubbed Dob has fallen in love with a product designer Lana (Pimchanok). Lana who happens to be prone to bad dates is baffled by Dob who confessed “he” is in love with her. You know AI are not supposed to have feelings or a physical entity.
In comes Bob (Mario), one of Lana’s bad dates who also happened to be a software engineer from Dob’s AI company. When Bob threatens to delete all of Lana’s files from Dob, the AI downloads itself to Bob’s body essentially taking over his physicality and predictability proceeds to win Lana’s heart with the encouragement of his fellow AIs.
While Spike Jonze’s Her delivers a beautiful relationship between a human and a robot with more realistic human emotion, AI Love You is somewhat sluggish when it comes to making an impact about the connection and mind-bending romance between the impossible.
There’s also a weak attempt in conjuring some cute humour when Dob first realised it’s trapped in Bob’s body. Like a fish out of water, Dob attempts to live life as a normal human being and learning how to go after Lana’s heart liked pretending to be an art lover and a caring figure. The entire second act is all about Dob and Lana getting lovey-dovey until the jarring finale in which the director himself, David Asavanond appears as a hunter of rogue AIs to generate some need be animosity.
The whole technology part doesn’t make much of a sense considering that AI’s are a much more superb form of computer programming but most of the communication here are entirely nonsensical. The main theme of the movie is frankly rather interesting and thought-provoking however, the story pretty much decamp to romance territory given the presence of one of Thai’s best onscreen couple, Mario Maurer and Pimchanok Luevisadpaibul.
Even for a rom-com, this is a boring disaster that fails in both comedy and drama. Mario Maurer and Pimchanok Luevisadpaibul certainly has been in much better works than AI Love You. This is unfortunately a major mishap for both of them.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
Genre: CG Animation
Director: Pierre Perifel
Cast: Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos, Awkwafina, Richard Ayoade, Zazie Beetz, Lilly Singh, Alex Borstein
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: UIP
Official Website:
Opening Day: 17 March 2022
Synopsis: Nobody has ever failed so hard at trying to be good as The Bad Guys. In the new action comedy from DreamWorks Animation, based on the New York Times best-selling book series, a crackerjack criminal crew of animal outlaws are about to attempt their most challenging con yet — becoming model citizens. Never have there been five friends as infamous as The Bad Guys — dashing pickpocket Mr. Wolf ( Academy Award ® winner Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri ), seen-it-all safecracker Mr. Snake (Marc Maron, GLOW), chill master-of-disguise Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson, Hot Tub Time Machine franchise), short-fused “muscle” Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos, In the Heights) and sharp-tongued expert hacker Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina, Crazy Rich Asians), aka “Webs.” But when, after years of countless heists and being the world’s most-wanted villains, the gang is finally caught, Mr. Wolf brokers a deal (that he has no intention of keeping) to save them all from prison: The Bad Guys will go good. Under the tutelage of their mentor Professor Marmalade (Richard Ayoade, Paddington 2), an arrogant (but adorable!) guinea pig, The Bad Guys set out to fool the world that they’ve been transformed. Along the way, though, Mr. Wolf begins to suspect that doing good for real may give him what he ’s always secretly longed for: acceptance. So when a new villain threatens the city, can Mr. Wolf persuade the rest of the gang to become ... The Good Guys?
Movie Review:
They are the stuff of fairytales… except they’re on the wrong side of it. From the big bad wolf to the hungry shark, each of the characters in The Bad Guys is exactly that - the villain of every story they’ve been in. So the question begs, is this nature or nurture?
Pierre Perifel doesn’t reinvent the wheel here. He directs the animated adaptation of Aaron Blabey’s children books (of the same name) with a pleasing but predictable plot, with enough moments to keep viewers satisfied. It’s not exactly the refreshing take it was made out to be in their early proposals, but it does have a few imaginative executions, like its mix of animation styles.
There’s spots of classic 2D illustrative elements mixed in with lush 3D material renders, and the colourful world is nicely realised with some character, even if bits of it seems rehashed from earlier productions. I’ll make no bones about it and say it is stylistically mediocre, but there’s enough cohesion and frills here to escape into, with a humour that mostly sits better with a younger crowd.
Our anthropomorphic troop is made up of Mr. Wolf, his right-hand reptile Mr. Snake, Mr. Shark, Mr. Piranha, and Ms. Tarantula. They’re pegged as expert criminals - each with their own niche - and conduct heist after heist to keep the good citizens and the police in the town busy. And while they take pride in their work, there’s also the case that that’s all they’ve ever known.
When governor Diane Foxington profiles them as a deadbeat group, Wolf takes on the challenge of stealing the Golden Dolphin as a trophy heist. One thing leads to another, and the next thing you know, the model citizen that is guinea pig, Professor Marmalade, persuades the town to give the outlaws a chance to become good. Needless to say, this is not a straightforward affair.
There’s twists in there that won’t exactly drop jaws, but also some sequences that provide joy to the revelations, and this balance is appreciated from feature first-timer Perifel. More grit would have been good for this writer, because the message of trying to do good is a worthy one, nicely handled in some of the conversations between Diane and Wolf. And even though the characters get nudged into this consideration, the development feels far too contrived for a matter this deep.
The audience will enjoy the voice acting from the likes of Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron and Zazie Beetz, but will most noticeably recognise that of Awkwafina’s, who has the role of the spider. Their portrayal is as good as it gets, if only hampered by the formulaic writing and some old jokes.
This band of criminals finding their conscience is enjoyable enough but could have been so much more if the writers focused more on the transition and motivations, rather than on small slapstick sequences. But thanks to an even hand and pleasant visuals, The Bad Guys should make for a good school holiday film for the family to enjoy.
Movie Rating:
(Breezy animated effort that could benefit from a richer investigation into what makes for a good or bad person)
Review by Morgan Awyong
Genre: Drama/Comedy
Director: Channing Tatum and Reid Carolin
Cast: Channing Tatum, Zuza, Britta and Lana (as Lulu), Luke Forbes, Ethan Suplee, Kevin Nash, Jane Adams, Q’orianka Kilcher, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Nicole LaLiberte, Junes Zahdi
Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Coarse Language and Sexual References)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:
Opening Day: 17 March 2022
Synopsis: DOG is a buddy comedy that follows the misadventures of two former Army Rangers paired against their will on the road trip of a lifetime. Army Ranger Briggs (Channing Tatum) and Lulu (a Belgian Malinois dog) buckle into a 1984 Ford Bronco and race down the Pacific Coast in hopes of making it to a fellow soldier's funeral on time. Along the way, they’ll drive each other completely crazy, break a small handful of laws, narrowly evade death, and learn to let down their guards in order to have a fighting chance of finding happiness.
Movie Review:
And why shouldn’t Channing Tatum portray a US Army veteran who has been wounded (physically and psychologically) by the war? After playing countless macho characters in the Magic Mike, GI Joe and 21/22 Jump Street movies, the 41 year old actor is the perfect candidate for the role.
In this drama comedy which Tatum co directed with Reid Carolin, he takes on the character of Jackson Briggs, a retired Army Ranger who is feeling down and is dying for a piece of action – you can’t blame the guy for reminiscing about his glorious past after taking up a seemingly boring job at a sandwich parlour. To score points to get back into the service, he accepts the mission to transport a fellow soldier's K-9 military working dog to her late handler’s funeral across the country. It’s a road trip for Briggs and the Belgian Malinois named Lulu. You can bet this is going to be a fun road trip.
Do we need another movie about dogs? Many other titles come to mind. Japanese drama Hachiko Monogatari (1987) and its American remake Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009) can make grown men cry. Turner & Hooch (1989) is a great buddy cop comedy, while All Dogs Go To Heaven (1989) is an animated classic.
This movie starring Tatum actually feels different from the abovementioned films. Instead of playing up the sentimental storyline (which can be really convenient because Lulu is meant to be put down after the funeral), there are actually many fun elements throughout the 104 runtime, and it is likely due to the Tatum’s effortless on screen presence. He is like the buddy every guy wants to have, and the rugged fella every lady wishes to date. The scenes of him interacting with Lulu are fun to watch, and you’ll believe that the two actually formed a bond on set. The filmmakers did not waste the opportunity to show off Tatum’s well built bod. You can expect shirtless scenes, and in one particularly gratuitous sequence, be in awe as Tatum’s t-shirt clings to his body while he walks in the rain.
Guilty pleasure aside, the movie does offer an interesting look at how two wounded individuals come together to heal each other. One’s a human who is coming to terms that the army doesn’t need him (he also has a permanent impairment that isn’t doing his health any good), while the other is a canine who has been traumatised by war (the dog doesn’t know that she is going to be euthanised at a military base after attending its former handler’s funeral). Right up to the scene where Lulu is about to face her eventual fate, you will have a foreboding that things may end on a sad note. But trust the filmmakers to ensure a happy ending so that viewers can walk out of the theatre on a positive note, albeit the turn of events does feel a bit rushed.
There are also some unexpected episodes in the story. One involves a potential threesome that gets interrupted, while another sees Briggs and Lulu checking into a luxurious hotel under hilarious circumstances. These moments are fun enough for you to be engaged from beginning to end.
Movie Rating:
(Channing Tatum works his charm in this enjoyable and entertaining movie)
Review by John Li
Genre: Animation/Documentary
Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen
Runtime: 1 hr 29 mins
Rating: M18 (Mature Content)
Released By: Lighthouse Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 10 March 2022 (Exclusively at The Projector)
Synopsis: FLEE tells the story of Amin Nawabi as he grapples with a painful secret he has kept hidden for 20 years, one that threatens to derail the life he has built for himself and his soon to be husband. Recounted mostly through animation to director Jonas Poher Rasmussen, he tells for the first time the story of his extraordinary journey as a child refugee from Afghanistan.
Movie Review:
The world isn’t quite the place it used to be. In the wake of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the release of this Danish animated docudrama film in Singapore couldn’t be timelier.
Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, the film has received international acclaim after its world premiere at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Documentary section. At the upcoming 94th Academy Awards, the film garnered nominations in the Best International Feature Film, Best Documentary Feature and Best Animated Feature categories, a rare feat because this is the first title to be nominated in all three major categories simultaneously.
And it is not difficult to see why. Rasmussen adopted an interesting approach to use animation and documentary filmmaking to tell a true story, a tale that needs to be told amidst whatever is happening around the world. It is the encounter of someone Rasmussen met in his rural Danish village when he was 15 years old. The someone is Amin (a pseudonym), an Afghan refugee who had supposedly fled his country after his entire family was killed. Over the decades, the two became friends and Amin finally decides to tell Rasmussen what really happened.
Then came Rasmussen’s decision to animate his friend’s story, so that Amin can keep his anonymity. The result is a heartfelt film that is essentially about a man’s tale of survival in a world that seems to be getting increasingly messed up.
Kudos to animation director Kenneth Ladekjaer , whose use of animation to tell Amin’s tale is a clever move, because it allows the filmmakers to animate flashback sequences. In a normal documentary, visualising past events would have been a challenge. But the visuals are secondary, as what’s more poignant is Amin’s voice which is the main driving force of the story. You can hear the different emotions as the film progresses. When he is sharing fond recollections, there is joy in his voice. And then you can sense fear in his voice as he narrates harrowing events from the past. Composer Uno Helmersson’s string based score moves the story along.
From the beginning of the film where you will see how Amin’s childhood in Afghanistan was bookmarked by happy memories of listening to Norwegian pop band A Ha’s “Take on Me”, to a series of traumatising events involving war and human trafficking that would eventually tear his family apart, every scene on screen is captivating and warrants your fullest attention. Real life events of the Mujahideen seizing power in Kabuland the opening of the first McDonald’s restaurant in Russiaare interspersed in Amin’s story. There also live action archival footage to lend relevancy to the documentary.
The film also deals with Amin’s struggle with own identity, when he first reacts to a movie poster featuring a buff Jean Claude Van Damme when he was a child. This aspect of the story is told with a mature and delicate touch, as you finally see how Amin is planning to marry his partner and live an open life as a gay man. Thankfully, the filmmakers did not jump at the opportunity to play up or exploit these portions of the film. Instead, they are weaved nicely into the entire narrative.
The 89 minute film does not feel overlong. It creates maximum impact with the agreeable runtime. Most importantly, it is not an unabashed political propaganda piece that hooks viewers with melodrama. At its heart is a human story that you’ll care about deeply, and will leave you thinking about the concept of what it means to have a home.
Movie Rating:
(A powerful and moving human drama that is also essential and therapeutic)
Review by John Li
Genre: Action/Thriller
Director: Tarik Saleh
Cast: Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Gillian Jacobs, Eddie Marsan, Florian Munteanu, Kiefer Sutherland
Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins
Rating: NC16 (Coarse Language and Violence)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 10 March 2022
Synopsis: After being involuntarily discharged from the U.S. Special Forces, James Harper (Pine) decides to support his family by joining a private contracting organization alongside his best friend (Foster) and under the command of a fellow veteran (Sutherland). Overseas on a covert mission, Harper must evade those trying to kill him while making his way back home.
Movie Review:
Lest we forget, it was just about two decades ago that the United States had gone to war with Iraq, after falsely claiming that the Saddam Hussein government had weapons of mass destruction. While the government counted the cost of the war in terms of billions, its army and citizens did so in terms of lives lost and irreversibly damaged.
Though pitched as an action thriller involving such individuals who joined private contracting firms after struggling to re-adapt to civilian life, it is ultimately better as a character study of the personal challenges each of these persons would no doubt have had to go through, as well as the morass of ethically questionable jobs that the government had contracted out to these private firms to get done off the radar.
Indeed, ‘The Contractor’ is deliberately paced to outline the post-army life of former Special Forces sergeant James Harper (Chris Pine), who is dishonourably discharged by a new commanding regime under the excuse of abusing drugs for his left knee which he had shattered in combat.
Without pension or health care, James finds himself at a loss how to take care of his wife (Gillian Jacobs) and young son. He is also still haunted by the disappearance of his Ranger father, and unsettled by the death of fellow war veterans who could not re-adjust after being similarly discharged.
It is a sobering reality, and both Swedish director Tarik Saleh and writer J.P. Davis take care in the first act to illustrate James’ sense of anxiety, disillusionment and even helplessness before the action takes over.
Out of sheer desperation, James asks his best friend Mike (Ben Foster) for an introduction to the fellow veteran (Kiefer Sutherland) whose outfit he works for. James’ first mission sees him being sent to Berlin to assassinate a scientist with purported links to Al Qaeda, though as you can probably guess, things are not quite what they seem to be.
Unfortunately for James and Mike, the mission goes awry, leaving the rest of their team killed by German police and the need to cover their tracks. We shan’t spoil the surprise for what comes next, but suffice to say that James will eventually learn what research the scientist was working on and eventually return to the United States to settle the score with his employers.
Those who like their stories with intrigue will be disappointed that there is little of that here, not least because there is never any doubt who the bad guys really were or does the narrative throw in any twists along the way.
Despite the by-the-numbers plotting, you’ll find yourself invested in James’ fate, thanks to the character-driven first act we described earlier, as well as Pine’s utterly committed performance. Coming off supporting roles in the ‘Wonder Woman’ movies, Pine shows his leading man chops here, playing the role of a damaged former soldier with utter conviction. Pine is also front and centre in the hand-to-hand action scenes, going mano-a-mano with tough military types in mostly tight confines.
It is however true too that the rest of the supporting cast is sadly wasted. As James’ wife and mother to his kid, Jacobs tries her best to project the unease of a woman worried both about her husband and their family’s future, but is given short shrift in the last two acts. The friendship between James and Mark is never fully explored, such that we also never get to see the character acting Foster is capable of. But perhaps the most criminally underused is Sutherland, who is in only two scenes of the final cut of the movie and is particularly let down by the climax.
You’d do well therefore not to regard ‘The Contractor’ as an action thriller, for it is at best serviceable and at worst uninspiring. Yet we suspect both director Saleh and our leading man Pine were drawn to the material because of its potential as a character study of former military men who were let down by the service and had no choice but to turn to shady private jobs to earn a living. And in that regard, it presents an earnest portrait of one such individual that you can relate and sympathise with.
Movie Rating:
(Better as a character study than as an action thriller, 'The Contractor' is bolstered by an utterly committed leading performance from Chris Pine)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Action/Drama
Director: Henry Alex Rubin
Cast: Jai Courtney, Nat Wolff, Finn Wittrock, Beau Knapp, Arturo Castro, Leighton Meester
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Rating: M18 (Coarse Language)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:
Opening Day: 3 March 2022
Synopsis: Cal (Jai Courtney), is a by-the-book police officer who makes ends meet as a reservist in Marine Corps along with his rowdy and inseparable group of childhood friends. When Cal’s younger, reckless half-brother Oyster (Nat Wolff) accidentally kills a guy in a barfight and tries to flee, Cal is torn between his family and his job.
Movie Review:
Why this misguided film about brotherhood should receive a theatrical release two years after it was dropped day and date in cinemas and on streaming in the United States is baffling. Not only is it devoid of any critical merit, it also offers little gratification for the casual viewer, so consider that fair warning for anyone who might feel curious enough to wander into this deeply unfulfilling action thriller.
Otherwise known as ‘Brothers in Arms’, it is both a story about two brothers as it is one about a band of brothers. The former refers to Cal (Jai Courtney) and Oyster (Nat Wolff), a pair of half-brothers who are regularly at odds with each other due to the latter’s emotionally volatile nature, which has resulted in multiple run-ins with the law over the past couple of years, so much so that Oyster is just one charge away from prison. Should it be any surprise that Cal is a police officer, thus exacerbating the tension between brothers whenever the former suspects that the latter is up to no good?
The other brotherhood depicted here is that of Cal, Oyster and three other Marine reservists, who out of duty to nation at the height of the US-led war in 2005, have signed up to be shipped out to Iraq. These other ‘brothers’ are Jaeger (Finn Wittrock), Snowball (Arturo Castro) and Milk (Beau Knapp), whose loyalty to one another will not only be tested during a particularly traumatic tour that sees one of them lose a leg, but also when Cal decides to disregard his oath to uphold the law in order to break Oyster out of prison after being personally responsible for his arrest for manslaughter.
It isn’t hard to see why director Henry Alex-Rubin, who co-wrote the story with former U.S. Army officer Sean Mullin, decided to fuse the two expressions of brotherhood. On one hand, it would not be the first time that the physical and psychological impact of the Iraqi war was the subject of a film; on the other, it would be the perfect excuse to justify why a bunch of generally law-abiding individuals would do something so foolish and reckless, notwithstanding that it is to rescue a fellow brother from a depraved prison system he should not have to suffer in the hands of.
And yet, Rubin’s perfunctory storytelling ultimately dooms his method. Besides plenty of tough-talk, there is little else to convince us of the camaraderie that these men share, not even when they go from the streets of the small upstate New York town of Bridgewater to the danger-prone alleys of Iraq, where they are betrayed by no less than the Iraqi police. Nor for that matter are we persuaded by why the prison guards would take a dislike towards Oyster, so much so that they would purposely rough him up and plant evidence in his jail in order to send him to solitary. Without these, the final act just becomes a standard-issue prison break, which in itself strains credibility by how utterly lax the security detail of prison transport would be.
For these reasons and several more, ‘Semper Fi’ never becomes anything we can emotionally invest in. The performances here too rarely rise above the material, with Courtney, Wolff and Wittrock struggling to find ways to lend their respective characters pathos. But the fault here lies not with the actors but with the underdeveloped script, which tries to stick a war drama and a prison break thriller into one and ultimately fails at either. So in spite of its title, there is nothing to hold faith with this movie on, and little reason to care about its curious appearance on our screens two years after it was likewise ignored back where it was first released.
Movie Rating:
(Neither a compelling war drama or a convincing prison-break thriller, there is hardly anything in 'Semper Fi' that one can keep faith with)
Review by Gabriel Chong
SYNOPSIS: In “No Exit,” Havana Rose Liu (“Mayday”) makes her feature film leading role debut as Darby, a young woman en route to a family emergency who is stranded by a blizzard and forced to find shelter at a highway rest area with a group of strangers. When she stumbles across an abducted girl in a van in the parking lot, it sets her on a terrifying life-or-death struggle to discover who among them is the kidnapper.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Despite efforts from reputable filmmakers liked Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg to retain the cinematic magic, streaming is going to be huge if not bigger as the years go. And it’s not just during the pandemic we are talking about. In fact, streaming is the go-to place for movies liked No Exit, a perfunctory mid-budget or low-budget thriller that works perfectly on the small screen.
No Exit which is actually based on a novel by Taylor Adams opens with a recovering drug addict named Darby (Havana Rose Liu) who escaped from a rehab center to visit her terminally ill mother in Salt Lake City. But when the interstates are closed due to an upcoming blizzard, Darby needs to seek shelter at a nearby visitors center where she chanced upon a young girl (whom we learnt is named Jay later on) being kidnapped and tied up in a van.
Darby obviously is not the only person trapped at the visitors center. There’s an interracial married couple, Sandi (Dale Dickey) and Ed (Dennis Haysbert), a strange loner, Lars (David Rysdahl) and a charmer, Ash (Danny Ramirez). Time however is running out for Darby as Jay is suffering from Addison’s disease and she needs her medicine to survive. Will Darby manage to get Jay out in the end or risk getting killed by one of the suspects huddling at the center?
Instead of revealing the killer and motive towards the end liked say, Death on the Nile (2022) or Identity (2003), much of everything you need to know is unravel by the second act. Pathetically, there’s minimal buildup of suspense or thrills to be precise, making it more of a missed opportunity than a worthy whodunit. The occasional violent outburst is unabashedly used probably for shock values. Ultimately, the final screenplay is so simple that we wonder how much details are omitted as compared to the book version.
While the plotting deserves better, newcomer Havana Rose Liu puts in more than decent performance as Darby although the complexity of her character is hardly a wholly original setup. The other commendable factor is the one-location premise which serves as a competent set for the cat-and-mouse game which in turn reminds one of Vacancy (2007), a trashy thriller set in a rundown motel.
Rather than forking out money on an expensive movie ticket plus a tub of overpriced popcorn and considering No Exit is an original release on Disney+, the fast-moving thriller is an easy watch on a weekday’s night at home. Just bear in mind that while it lacks in originality, it wins when it all boils down to economical and efficiency.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
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ZEUS & HERA: DIRECTOR'S CUTPosted on 01 Mar 2022 |
SYNOPSIS: The Tender Bar tells the story of J.R. (Sheridan), a fatherless boy growing up in the glow of a bar where the bartender, his Uncle Charlie (Affleck), is the sharpest and most colorful of an assortment of quirky and demonstrative father figures. As the boy’s determined mother (Rabe) struggles to provide her son with opportunities denied to her — and leave the dilapidated home of her outrageous if begrudgingly supportive father (Christopher Lloyd) — J.R. begins to gamely, if not always gracefully, pursue his romantic and professional dreams — with one foot persistently placed in Uncle Charlie’s bar. The Tender Bar is based on the best-selling memoir of the same name by J.R. Moehringer.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Everyone deserves an Uncle Charlie in their lives. A street-smart uncle that generously serves nuggets of wisdom when you need them. Bring you bowling and treat you like a peer rather than an ordinary nephew. Maybe he will even gift you a Cadillac later in life as well.
With a screenplay written by Oscar winner William Monahan (The Departed) and directed by George Clooney, The Tender Bar is based on a memoir by Pulitzer winner and journalist J.R. Moehringer. It’s in short, a coming-of-age tale that basically stalls whenever Ben Affleck is missing from the screen.
J.R. is a young boy who follows his mother, Dorothy (Lily Rabe) back to Long Island to live with his grandparents after leaving his irresponsible father. Growing up without a father figure, he is fortunate to have Uncle Charlie (Affleck) acting as his surrogate father while the patrons at the bar he worked at chips in the occasional drunken advice. For whatever reason, Dorothy is determined that J.R. goes to Yale with the rest of the uneven story focusing on a grown-up J.R. (Tye Sheridan) and his career and lacklustre love life.
The Tender Bar marks Clooney’s eight full-length feature and definitely one of his most forgettable. The movie can’t decide it wants to be a piece on Uncle Charlie or J.R. that it lacks a significant voice in the end. Told from the perspective of J.R., the movie takes viewers on a slow brooding journey mostly detailing his obsession with an affluent girl named Sidney to the time he spent at New York Times as a copyboy. Largely nothing extraordinary and nothing dramatic.
The only commendable moments are the ones with Uncle Charlie where our favourite bartender dispenses his trademark witty outlook on life and his constant encouragement of J.R. being a writer. Despite a laidback, down-to-earth portrayal, Affleck perfectly nailed the character of Charlie although he is very much an enigma by the end of the flick. It’s a perfect example where a supporting character outshines the main star or character of the movie or in this case, J.R. played by Tye Sheridan who looks kind of uninterested throughout.
While the story is middling, the soundtrack is brilliant and the production and costume design which depicts the 70’s are sharp. Last but not least, no offence to J.R. Moehringer but maybe George Clooney should pick a better adaptation for his next directorial piece. This one just lacks a certain affection and fails miserly to charm even though Uncle Charlie is a gem.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
Genre: Comics/Action
Director: Sam Raimi
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Elizabeth Olsen, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, Michael Stühlbarg, Rachel McAdams
Runtime: 2 hrs 6 mins
Rating: PG13
Released By: Walt Disney
Official Website:
Opening Day: 4 May 2022
Synopsis: In Marvel Studios’ “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” the MCU unlocks the Multiverse and pushes its boundaries further than ever before. Journey into the unknown with Doctor Strange, who, with the help of mystical allies both old and new, traverses the mind-bending and dangerous alternate realities of the Multiverse to confront a mysterious new adversary.
Movie Review:
[Warning! Contains Spoilers!]
Continuing the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s dizzying exploration of parallel realities, ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ opens with a chaotic sequence in which a pony-tailed Doctor Strange leaps across floating rock fragments with a young woman in a star-spangled jean jacket from a raging, fiery demon. It won’t be long before the girl named America (Xochitl Gomez) tells Strange that she is being hunted by someone who wants her singular ability of leaping across universes.
In similar universe-hopping mode, those hoping to pick up immediately where this next MCU chapter begins would do well to spend a couple of hours prior with the Disney+ series ‘WandaVision’, given how that had set up the character arc of Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and her transformation into the Scarlet Witch. For those who need a refresher, it would suffice to say that Wanda’s fantasy of a happy family life had shattered, setting up her tragi-villainous turn here as an all-powerful sorcerer of dark magic bent on acquiring America’s powers in order to be reunited with her two twin boys, who are alive in every other dimension than the one she is currently stuck on. As writer Michael Waldron (of the Disney+ series ‘Loki’) would have it, she will learn the heart-breaking way that there is no easy way of finding happiness in a parallel self.
The battle between Strange and Wanda for America will unfold across several universes: in the present, Strange will team up with his former sidekick turned Sorcerer Supreme Wong (Benedict Wong) to fend off the giant octopus creature Gargantos in the streets of lower Manhattan as well as a brutal attack on the sorcerer stronghold Kamar-Taj; in an alternate New York City where ‘green means stop and red means go’, Strange will encounter his old frenemy Baron Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and a council of superheroes known as the Illuminati; and last but not least, in a shattered reality following an incursion, Strange will encounter a vengeful doppelganger who had made use of the same malevolent book known as the Darkhold which Wanda had mastered to enrich her extraordinary powers.
Like the last ‘Spider-Man’, it should come as no surprise that ‘Multiverse of Madness’ uses the same universe-hopping conceit to bring back some familiar fan favourites. It is unavoidably messy narrative-wise, skimming over logic and coherence to frog-hop from one set-piece to another, not least when the action unfolds across parallel universes at the same time to eventually converge in one at the same point in time. And yet as exhausting as it is, there is no denying the energy and inventiveness of the inter-dimensional enterprise, thanks to the imagination and wackiness of director Sam Raimi.
Returning to the MCU fold after close to two decades away, Raimi (of the Tobey Maguire ‘Spider-Man’ trilogy) jumps at the opportunity of imprinting his gonzo style of filmmaking. Within the requisite CGI-heavy fights are visually stunning shots comprising dizzying zooms, tilting angles and jump-scares, as well as deliriously gonzo touches including black wraith-like undead and a rotting zombie-like Strange that Raimi-heads would be proud of. Oh yes, Raimi forges his own distinct brand of weird irreverence into the altered states and Far East mysticism of the Doctor Strange property, and without giving too much away, we’d say to keep a lookout for a magical duel where two Stranges duel by shooting musical notes at each other as an example of what Raimi has brought to the fold.
Yet it isn’t just spectacle that Raimi finds in the material, it is also introspection. We find Strange here still grappling with his decision to enable Thanos’ snap in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, and coming to terms with how he will never be able to be with the love of his life Christine (Rachel McAdams); likewise, Wanda finds herself in the same dilemma of not being able to find happiness with the ones she loves, and that which drives her current take-no-prisoners existence. In between the set-pieces, Cumberbatch and Olsen both discover new ways to elevate their respective characters emotionally, and it is in their humanism that we are able to identify with how we are all in our own ways trying to find the strength to get by without necessarily having the privilege of being with the people we love.
So unhinged though it may seem, there is really method to the madness which you’ll find in this characteristic MCU entry. The MCU faithful will cheer its numerous call-backs, and whoop at the possibilities teased, including an unmissable mid-credits scene. Those familiar with Raimi will enjoy how he has brought his brand of dark, terrifying storytelling to this movie, filling out a haunted house with creativity and eccentricity. And those simply looking for a summer Marvel blockbuster will at least be grateful that it isn’t yet another cookie-cutter ‘Avengers’ retread, demonstrating Marvel’s derring-do at advancing the MCU in surprisingly auteur-driven ways. It’ll leave your head spinning all right, but you’ll be hard pressed to find another MCU entry as idiosyncratically entertaining.
Movie Rating:
(All sorts of weird, wacky and wonderful, this latest inter-dimensional Marvel outing is cheer for the MCU faithful, delight for fans of director Sam Raimi, and idiosyncratic entertainment for everyone else)
Review by Gabriel Chong
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