Genre: CG Animation
Director: Rob Minkoff, Mark Koetsier and Chris Bailey
Cast: Michael Cera, Ricky Gervais, Mel Brooks, George Takei, Aasif Mandvi, Gabriel Iglesias, Djimon Hounsou, Michelle Yeoh, Kylie Kuioka, Cathy Shim, Samuel L. Jackson
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:
Opening Day: 21 July 2022
Synopsis: A hard-on-his-luck hound Hank (Michael Cera) finds himself in a town full of cats who need a hero to defend them from a ruthless villain's (Ricky Gervais) evil plot to wipe their village off the map. With help from a reluctant teacher (Samuel L. Jackson) to train him, our underdog must assume the role of town samurai and team up with the villagers to save the day.
Movie Review:
We’re not sure who came up with the idea of turning Mel Brooks’ 1974 Western parody ‘Blazing Saddles’ into an animated comedy, but we can tell you that the result is less than inspired, even as it credits all (five!) writers of that landmark film.
Whereas the Brooks’ satire confronted racial prejudice head-on by putting a Black sheriff in a White frontier town, ‘Paws of Fury’ decidedly avoids that controversy by substituting the characters with… cats and dogs. So it is in our version that the hero is a naïve pup named Hank (Michael Cera), who is unwittingly sent by the nefarious Somali cat official Ika Chu (Ricky Gervais) to the fictional feline village of Kakamucho to be its samurai defender.
Not surprisingly, as skeptical as both he and the town are as of his own abilities, Hank eventually transforms into the town’s underdog (pun intended), in no small part to the retired master Jimbo (Samuel L. Jackson) that Hank signs a contract with to be his teacher. Besides Jimbo, Hank finds an unexpected ally in foe-turned-friend Sumo (Djimon Hounsou), a giant, dim-witted tabby cat that Ika had sent to drive the people of Kakamucho out sooner.
In case it isn’t obvious, Ika wants the town gone, seeing it as not only an eyesore but also an obstacle to his plan to expand his palace. Besides Sumo, Ika will terrorise the townspeople with two rounds of invasion led by Ohga (George Takei), a muscular Manx cat. It is on the latter offensive that Ika and his thugs will be confronted by the visiting Shogun (Brooks), a British shorthair who proves to be a lot more empathetic than Ika’s rule over the town would suggest.
Even with breaking the fourth wall with meta-gags about Hank’s obligatory training montage or the length of the movie (only 85 mins!), the script is only intermittently funny. Some jokes deliberately reference that from Brooks’ film, albeit retooled to cut down the outdated references or obscenity; others seem improvised on the fly, like Jackson’s thinly veiled reference to the Force. Thankfully, there are those which are still good for a few hearty laughs, like how the Shogun communicates to Ika through a long line of cats playing telephone and its frequent use of ‘toilet humour’ (mind you, it gets as literal as Ika obsessing over a giant jade toilet bowl known as the Super Bowl).
To veteran co-director Rob Minkoff’s credit though, there are sequences of ingenuity amidst the largely assembly-line animation. The flashbacks explaining Hank’s wanna-be samurai origins or Jimbo’s fall from grace are vividly rendered; ditto the traditional Japanese illustrations that mark the opening credits. The voice cast also elevates the material, especially a spry Brooks as the aloof Shogun, a perfectly sarcastic Gervais as the villainous Ika Chu and a signature Jackson as the cynical sensei Jimbo; though other star talent like Michelle Yeoh, Takei, Assif Mandvi and Gabriel Iglesias are somewhat under-used given the limited time their characters have.
Admittedly, you could do a lot worse than ‘Paws of Fury’ if you were looking for something to kill time with the kids; and yet, seeing as how it draws from a 1974 Brooks classic, as well as boasting an impressive voice ensemble, it is hardly surprising that one would be expecting more. It doesn’t help too that Hank is nowhere near as adorable or endearing as Po from ‘Kung Fu Panda’, which this martial arts animation will inevitably draw comparisons with, so before you saddle up, we urge you to set your expectations right, just so you won’t feel after that you’ve been taken for a ride.
Movie Rating:
(Good for an afternoon to kill time with the kids and little more, this animated comedy inspired by Mel Brooks' 1974 landmark Western parody is too tame for its own good)
Review by Gabriel Chong
SYNOPSIS: Rescued as a child by the legendary assassin Moody (Samuel L. Jackson) and trained in the family business, Anna (Maggie Q) is the world’s most skilled contract killer. But when Moody – the man who was like a father to her and taught her everything she needs to know about trust and survival – is brutally killed, Anna vows revenge. As she becomes entangled with an enigmatic killer (Michael Keaton) whose attraction to her goes way beyond cat and mouse, their confrontation turns deadly and the loose ends of a life spent killing will weave themselves even tighter.
MOVIE REVIEW:
When you think of onscreen kickass heroines, Michelle Yeoh and Maggie Q immediately comes to mind. While Yeoh has enjoy a flourishing career juggling between action and dramatic roles, Q’s career on the other hand has been pretty unremarkable since the end of her hit TV series, Nikita.
With The Protégé, she is back at what she does best- being a kickass heroine. Q stars as Anna, a girl adopted and raised by legendary assassin Moody (Samuel L. Jackson) after her family was mercilessly massacred in her home country, Vietnam. Fast forward years later, we see Anna running a bookstore selling rare books in London at the same time taking on high-profile contracts with her mentor, Moody. When Moody for no reason decides to investigate an old case in which he is associated with, Moody and Anna’s becomes the assassination targets instead.
Written by Richard Wenk who gave you The Equalizer, Jack Reacher 2 and The Expendables 2, The Protégé is filled with too many unnecessarily convoluted subplots and characters that it is better to concentrate solely on the action scenes. Talking about complicated and intrigue, we are introduced to Rembrandt (Michael Keaton) shortly after. However, Rembrandt is not the movie’s main antagonist, in short, he mainly worked for the bad guy. He is just another hired horny assassin who simply wants to get in bed with Anna but also wants to kill her.
Michael Keaton of course is vanilla smooth as Rembrandt. The Oscar nominated actor was Batman and still is. His character actually is far more compelling, and Keaton instantly nails it with a wicked grin opposite Q despite their decades old age gap. However, Wenk’s screenplay gets too busy tying up too much loose ends that the characters become too murky to be memorable.
As if Q, Jackson and Keaton is not enough to justify your admission ticket, Wenk throws in Robert Patrick as a Harvey riding tough guy in Vietnam who provides Anna with the relevant information she needs. Of course, how can we forget Martin Campbell, the helmer of this flick. The man behind Goldeneye, Casino Royale and the disastrous Green Lantern. To be fair, Campbell is far more consistent with his action than his storytelling. The Protégé pulls off a couple of well-choreographed fist fights between Anna and her attackers. Even Keaton and his stand-in deserves a round of applause. That leaves us with Jackson. Without spoiling the movie for you, let’s just say he only appears for a fraction of the screentime.
For the most part, Campbell and Wenk nails it thanks to the handful of accomplished action sequences and the charismatic presence of Maggie Q. Everything else especially the choppy parts on childhood trauma, mystery and revenge is a drag to follow.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
SYNOPSIS: From the Academy Award-winning writer of The Imitation Game (Graham Moore) comes The Outfit, a gripping and masterful thriller in which an expert tailor (Academy Award winner Mark Rylance) must outwit a dangerous group of mobsters in order to survive a fateful night.
MOVIE REVIEW:
The Outfit maybe mistaken as a movie adapted from a stage play given the entire flick is set in one single location, a tailor shop. In actual fact, the screenplay is an original story written for the screen by director Graham Moore (making his directorial debut) and Johnathan McClaine.
The crime noir drama stars Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies, Ready Player One) as a mild-mannered cutter, Leonard who runs his own tailor shop making high-end suits in 1950s Chicago. As the neighbourhood is controlled by Irish mob boss, Roy (Simon Russell Boyle), Leonard allows his shop to be used by the mob as a stash house with Roy’s son, Richie (Dylan O’Brien) and his dad’s faithful man, Francis (Johnny Flynn) being his “regular” customers. In the meantime, Leonard carries on his daily business oblivious of his surroundings and dirty transactions.
However when Richie and Francis turned up at the shop one day with the former being shot at the torso by a rival gang, things immediately spiralled out of control and dark secrets start to unravel.
Since stylistic visual and action is not the script’s forte, Moore has to rely heavily on the plotting and the performance of the actors to sell the movie. A good gangster drama doesn’t need a whole lot of submachine guns to sustain it as The Outfit offers enough twists and turns via some decent backstories and fine dialogue between the characters. Still, Graham offers a few moments of shock and blood-curdling violence when you least expect it. The suspense is in short, top-notch and tension is in generous display as a certain main character is disposed of midway and you are left wondering how the story is going to end.
Of course, the biggest success of The Outfit lies in the casting of Mark Rylance who is typically cast as mild-mannered, eccentric, chill but likely has a dark secret hidden. The character of Leonard definitely fits the bill. As the story goes, we learnt more of his past and the reason why he chose to settle in Chicago all the way from London. Is he just a simple man known for his appreciation of bespoke suits and craftsman skill? Expectedly the answer is no.
Although both Dylan O’Brien and Zoey Deutch who portrayed Leonard’s receptionist and Richie’s love interest looks seriously out of place in this period drama, Mark Rylance and Johnny Flynn delivers stunning performance for what it’s worth. Despite minor shortcomings which include the obvious barren setup, you will get plenty of enjoyment out of The Outfit if you are a true cinephile.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
SYNOPSIS: An action-packed fight to the death set in a fairy tale world, “The Princess” is directed by Le-Van Kiet (“Furie”) and stars Emmy Award® nominee Joey King (“The Act,” “The Kissing Booth”) as a beautiful, strong-willed princess who refuses to wed the cruel sociopath to whom she is betrothed, and is kidnapped and locked in a remote tower of her father’s castle. With her scorned, vindictive suitor intent on taking her father’s throne, the princess must protect her family and save the kingdom.
MOVIE REVIEW:
When you mix Disney’s Mulan with Pixar’s Brave but minus the magic, witch and bears, you get The Princess, the latest female empowerment action period flick starring former child star Joey King (The Conjuring, The Kissing Booth).
Produced by Neal H. Moritz (from the Fast & Furious franchise) and Derek Kolstad (writer of the John Wick series) and King herself, The Princess opens with King’s character being imprisoned on top of the castle after refusing to marry the son of a nobleman, Julius (Dominic Cooper). Originally agreed by the King to become the ruler of the Kingdom after marrying the Princess since the former has no heir, the barbaric Julius turned to using brute force after the Princess left him at the altar.
And now the Princess must use her martial arts skill imparted by Linh (Veronica Ngo) to take down numerous mercenaries and Julius’s whip-wielding henchwoman Moira (Olga Kurylenko) before her younger sister, Violet is forced to marry Julius instead.
Like it or not, The Princess possesses one of the most economical and simplistic screenplays of the year. There’s little we know of the Princess. She is not even given a proper name or title. All we know of her is from a couple of flashbacks which told of her desire to learn martial arts just like Princess Merida from Brave who loves her bow and arrows. But anyway, she learns that real power comes from the heart and that’s probably more than enough to take on goons twice her size.
The same issue applies to Julius, Moira and Linh. Pathetically, Julius don’t even have a decent backstory to back up his psychotic episodes while the leather-clad Olga Kurylenko’s only instruction from the director perhaps is to look mean and have a PG13 smooching, moaning scene with Cooper. Linh seems to be the Kingdom’s live-in martial arts instructor though she never seems to age over the years, maybe it’s magic as well.
But don’t get us wrong, we actually love The Princess. If you are a movie fan not looking for a movie heavy with exposition, remarkable storytelling and original tropes but plain highly entertaining fight scenes, you are in for a treat. The fights are often brutal and creative. Nothing like some dedicated stuntmen sustaining some hard falls as we see the Princess sparring against numerous goons and dodging them in secret corridors and alleys. There’s an incredible rush of adrenalin and occasional cartoonish violence on display and King is evidently prepare for the excruciating stuntwork.
Despite the medieval adventure suffering from bad CGI and unconvincing TV-like sets, The Princess delivers a highly-entertaining experience which cleverly flips the middle finger both at the dated fairytale genre and male toxic masculinity.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
Genre: Comedy
Director: Coba Cheng
Cast: Ronald Cheng, Gigi Leung, Edan Lui, Sandra Ng
Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Sexual References)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures and Clover Films
Official Website:
Opening Day: 14 July 2022
Synopsis: The COVID-19 pandemic offered white-collar workers everywhere the chance to work from home. At first, it seemed like a luxury to be able to work outside the shackles of the office. But for Coba, work-from-home has led to a daily cage match with his family! From deciding whether to turn “Coba mother’s homemade sauce” into an online business to choosing which type of bottle to use for packaging, long-hidden family conflicts are on the verge of erupting again. Soon enough, the family’s daily tugs-of-war become even spicier than chili sauce.
Movie Review:
Intended for release during this Chinese New Year before being deferred due to the COVID-19 lockdown in Hong Kong, ‘Chilli Laugh Story’ is nevertheless just as amusing, delightful and heart-warming even outside of the spirit of the season.
Adapted by first-time filmmaker Coba Cheng from his own real-life family story, it follows the ups and downs of a humble family’s attempt to turn their traditional homemade chilli sauce into a successful online business during the days of the pandemic.
Ronald Cheng is the father Alan, who has developed a curious interest in nature documentaries since being cooped at home. Gigi Leung is the mother Rita, who is quietly upset that her husband and son do not quite care about the effort she puts into in order to make the sauce. And last but not least, Edan Lui is Coba himself, who by sheer coincidence impresses his high school friends with his mother’s chilli sauce and realises it could very well be a business opportunity.
As scripted by (Coba) Cheng with veteran screenwriter Matthew Chow, the movie is also a reflection of the aspirations and anxieties of the Hong Kong population. Rita dreams of buying her own apartment, so much so that she uses her son’s name to apply for a bank mortgage without even consulting Coba. On the other hand, Alan’s nephew is eager to move his entire family to the UK, even if it means leaving his mother (Sandra Ng) behind, in the hopes that his young daughter will have a better life there than if she stays in Hong Kong.
Like producer Sandra Ng’s ‘Golden Chicken’, the events of ‘Chilli Laugh Story’ are similarly set against the real-life backdrop of the pandemic for greater resonance. You can imagine therefore how families who never had to spend so much time staring at one another would feel cooped up or suffocated, or how cooking became a convenient hobby for many, or even how those who either tested positive or were identified as close contacts had to be self-isolated in hotels-turned-quarantine centres.
Even as it references these events, ‘Chilli Laugh Story’ is first and foremost an affirmation of family, and it is in this regard that it proves winning. Through the minutiae of getting the online business up and running, the movie chronicles how both Coba’s parents come to rally behind him, especially his initially skeptical father, as well as how success triggers not just envy from within the larger extended family but also greed from corporate types. That the immediate family eventually comes together should be no surprise, but the journey there is utterly sincere and heartfelt.
Indeed, to director (Coba) Cheng’s credit, there is hardly a melodramatic moment in the film; instead, the relationships here are textured and measured, from how deep Alan’s love for Rita runs, to Alan’s pride for his son Coba, and to the depth of a mother’s love for her son. Besides Lui, the performers here are all veterans, and the ease with which they slip into their roles as well as their chemistry with one another further makes this family comedy-drama all the more poignant.
Complementing the cast of (Ronald) Cheng, Leung, Lui and Ng are droll cameos from the likes of Lo Hoi Pang, Hong Kong boyband Error and Louis Koo, and it is heartening just to see how the formula for such Hong Kong CNY movies can still be relevant, including and especially such name puns as 'Molly Yau' and 'Francis Wong'. Oh yes, as predicable as it may be, ‘Chilli Laugh Story’ is precisely the comfort food you want it to be. There is no guise, no artifice or any special effects for that matter here; this is plain and simple a story about what it means to be family, and we must say that is exactly what we love about it.
Movie Rating:
(Filled with heart and humour, this belated CNY offering is amusing, delightful and heart-warming even outside of the spirit of the season)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Action/Thriller
Director: Baltasar Kormákur
Cast: Idris Elba, Sharlto Copley, Iyana Halley, Leah Sava Jeffries
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins
Rating: NC16 (Some Violence & Disturbing Scenes)
Released By: UIP
Official Website:
Opening Day: 25 August 022
Synopsis: Idris Elba (Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, The Suicide Squad) stars in a pulse-pounding new thriller about a father and his two teenage daughters who find themselves hunted by a massive rogue lion intent on proving that the savannah has but one apex predator. Elba plays Dr. Nate Daniels, a recently widowed husband who returns to South Africa, where he first met his wife, on a long-planned trip with their daughters to a game reserve managed by Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley, Russian Doll series, Maleficent), an old family friend and wildlife biologist. But what begins as a journey of healing jolts into a fearsome fight for survival when a lion, a survivor of blood-thirsty poachers who now sees all humans as the enemy, begins stalking them.
Movie Review:
We have seen Idris Elba as a doctor stranded in a snowy mountain top in The Mountain Between Us struggling to find civilization with Kate Winslet. And now, Elba is again playing a suave doctor; only this time he is not romancing any top Hollywood actress in this survival thriller, but battling a savage, rouge lion.
When one of the characters is shown wearing a Jurassic Park tee shirt early into the 90 minutes flick, you know it’s a not-so-subtle hint on what to expect out of it. Clearly the message is about humans not being the apex predator and they need to fight their way out against a CGI lion instead of dinosaurs. Simple yet efficient.
Since he wasn’t there for his daughters, Meredith (Iyana Halley) and Norah (Leah Sava Jeffries) when his estranged wife died of cancer. Dr Nate (Elba) thinks it’s a great idea to bring them to a game reserve in South Africa for a vacation as it’s the birth place of his late wife. Thus, Nate meets up with his best friend, Martin (Sharlto Copley), the manager of the reserve who brought them to tour the reserve the next day. But hey it’s not Disney’s Animal Kingdom and the group encounters a lion hell-bent on killing anyone who dare venture into its territory.
The direction by Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur (2 Guns, Everest) for the most part is competent. At least he genuinely knows how to assemble some good old tension out of an all too familiar script. There’s a well-staged sequence which marks the beast first appearance to torment the group and leaving them trapped in a Land Rover. The camera work and editing is fortunately impressive, making every thrill and chew coherent to the audiences.
With the script hardly making a pitstop, do expect the lion to make a comeback as night falls. Things go south quickly of course, and a group of seemingly ferocious poachers fall victim to the lion easily, although it’s too murky dark to really focus on what’s happening onscreen except listening intently to the beast’s growling.
Beast obviously is not a deep movie about family dynamics, fully fleshed characters or narrative. Nobody is even here for the lesson and metaphor on illegal poaching. The sisters' constant bickering and screaming is more of an irritation, while the character of Sharlto Copley is barley there to make much of a difference, except being the token friend role of the male lead. The occasional pop out of hazy imaging of Nate’s late wife proves it’s inconsequential as well.
That leaves Idris Elba and the convincing CGI lion courtesy of Framestone. So if you are purely here to watch Elba wrestling with a VFX creature with blood and bruises all over, we can say you won’t be disappointed. This is totally a dumb B-movie that offers plenty of suspense and jump scares.
Movie Rating:
(Man Vs Nature or Elba Vs Beast…either way it’s a passable thriller)
Review by Linus Tee
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OLD SPICE X THOR: LOVE AND THUNDERPosted on 06 Jul 2022 |
Genre: Action/Disaster
Director: Han Jae Rim
Cast: Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun, Kim Nam-Gil, Jeon Do-Yeon, Yim Si-Wan, Kim So-Jin, Park Hae-Joon
Runtime: 2 hrs 20 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Disturbing Scenes)
Released By: Encore Films and Golden Village Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 4 August 2022
Synopsis: 'Emergency Declaration': If an aircraft faces a potential disaster, and normal flight can no longer be maintained, the pilot calls for an unconditional landing. Veteran chief police detective In-ho (Song Kang-Ho) receives a tip about a man threatening a terrorist attack against a plane. While investigating, he discovers that the suspect has boarded flight no. KI501. Despite his phobia of flying, Jae-hyuk (Lee Byung-Hun) decides to go to Hawaii for the sake of his daughter’s health. At the airport, he is distracted by a strange man who hangs around, speaking to them in a menacing way. Flight no. KI501 departs Incheon Airport for Hawaii, but soon afterwards a man dies for mysterious reasons. Fear and chaos spread quickly, not only inside the plane, but also on land. Hearing this news, Transport Minister Sook-hee (Jeon Do-Yeon) sets up a counterterrorism task force and calls an emergency meeting to find a way to land the airplane. .
Movie Review:
‘Emergency Declaration’ is but just a fancy name for an otherwise formulaic airplane disaster film, which is the first such genre outing for South Korean cinema.
Written and directed by Han Jae-rim on an impressive 25 billion won budget, the movie imagines a mid-air crisis sparked by the bioterrorist Jin-seok (Im Si-wan), who has smuggled a lethal virus on board a commercial flight from Incheon bound for Honolulu. Jin-seok unleashes the virus when the plane is airborne, causing death to spread slowly but surely from one passenger to another.
When even the chief pilot succumbs to the virus, it becomes incumbent upon the deputy pilot Hyeon-soo (Kim Nam-gil) to decide whether and when to make an emergency declaration, which obliges air traffic controllers to give it absolute priority over other aircraft to ensure an unconditional landing.
On the other hand, the decision before the people on the ground is whether to let Sky Korea Flight 501 land at their respective airports, given the threat on board and the consequent risk it poses to the general population. Weighing that tradeoff is Minister Suk-hee (Jeon Do-yeon) and presidential official Tae-soo (Park Hae-soon), gathered at the crisis management centre to decide on the fates of the 121 people on the flight.
Caught in the crisis is Jae-hyuk (Lee Byung-hun), who is travelling to Honolulu with his daughter for the sake of her health; as it turns out, Jae-hyuk will reveal himself to be a former pilot later on, whose brave emergency landing years ago has left him with aviophobia. Fuelling the ground response is veteran detective In-ho (Song Kang-ho), whose instinct about Jin-seok’s video promising to attack an aircraft leads him to suspect that something terrible might be happening on board Flight 501.
To Han’s credit, the set-up is captivating, establishing surely and steadily the various characters as well as their subsequent fates in the air and down below. It also lays the ground for the couple of notable Hollywood-style set-pieces, including one where the plane free-falls towards the ocean after its pilot passes out and another where a car chase is seen entirely from the windscreen of the vehicle in pursuit. Han does good on the film’s promise of disaster spectacle, delivering several nail-biting moments that will leave you with your heart in your mouth.
Yet Han does himself no favours with a contrived narrative whose sheer coincidences are simply too preposterous to ignore. How else would you describe why In-ho’s wife just happens to be on the same plane? Or how Jae-hyuk and Hyeon-soo happen to be former colleagues, who can therefore conveniently take over control of the plane after its pilot gets infected and dies? Ditto how In-ho gets into a high-security biotechnology lab to gain immunity to the virus, demanding that he be injected with the virus followed by an anti-viral drug.
Not even a credible cast with the likes of Lee and Song can save the storytelling from its own cliches, and therefore undermining what would otherwise be a solid summer blockbuster. Indeed, ‘Emergency Declaration’ is neither a cautionary tale or a procedural for that matter; this is ultimately a demonstration that Korean cinema can pull off an airplane disaster film as competently as Hollywood can, and as long as you’re in the mood for some ‘Con(tagion-in-the)-Air’, you’ll find this a modest diversion good for two hours of undemanding viewing.
Movie Rating:
(Plenty of thrills if little logic or credibility, this airplane disaster movie is Korean cinema's version of 'Con(tagion-in-the)-Air')
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Action
Director: Choi Jae-hoon
Cast: Jang Hyuk, Lee Seo-young, Bruce Khan, Bang Eun-jung, Shin Seung-hwan, Lee Seung-joon
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Rating: M18 (Violence and Some Drug Use)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 21 July 2022
Synopsis: 'The hit man's last mission: Keep the girl safe and sound. Ui-kang is a retired hit man. While his wife goes on a trip with her friend, she asks him a special favour to take care of her friend's daughter. He doesn't want to be bothered by the teenage girl but Yoon-ji gets stuck with juvenile delinquents and Ui-kang unavoidably uses a little bit of violence to protect her. However strangely, the juvenile delinquents are found dead and things start to get serious. Even worse, Yoon-ji is kidnapped by a teenager trafficking unit and Ui-kang is suspected of murder. He cannot fail his wife, he must get Yoon-ji back.
Movie Review:
Like its title suggests, ‘The Killer’ belongs to the breed of action films that exist only to deliver heart-pounding thrills for its entire duration, with as little complications of plot and/or character as possible.
The eponymous character is retired assassin Ui-gang (Jang Hyuk), whose desire to settle down quietly with his wife (Lee Chae-young) and get into the home renovation business is interrupted when he is entrusted to look after her friend’s step-daughter Yoon-ji (Lee Seo-young). What starts off as a simple job turns out anything but, as the girl is targeted by a sex-trafficking ring with Russian mafia ties.
Not surprisingly, Ui-gang springs immediately into action, teaching the young punks intimidating Yoon-ji at a closed indoor skating rink a lesson or two in manners as well as tracking down the larger ruthless syndicate for which these low-level thugs were working for and would subsequently pay with their lives to.
Working his way up the food chain, Ui-gang will get into multiple brawls and shootouts as he tries to eliminate the imminent threat to Yoon-ji’s life. That quest will bring him to several varied locations; that includes, among others, a grungy office at the back of a subway station, a love motel-turned-prostitution den at the outskirts of town, a container port where Yoon-ji is bound to be shipped from, and a lavish residence where a powerful high court official is revealed to be the mastermind.
Each of these locations is in itself a scene for a tightly executed action set-piece, and to director Choi Jae-hoon’s credit, every single one is intriguing in its own regard. That said, the piece de resistance is no doubt Ui-gang’s raid on the motel, which features a one-against-three fight within an elevator, a one-against-many corridor brawl shot in a single take, and a mano-a-mano in a room between Ui-gang and a formidable Russian hitman (Bruce Khan) in quick, breath-taking succession.
Having participated in the pre-production and action design, Jang makes each scene his own, bringing both nimble athleticism and cool charisma to the role. Jang makes no apologies for his viciousness against his opponents, preferring instead to win his audience’s empathy by his compassion towards Yoon-ji as well as his fierce love for his wife (whose identity will be the subject of a surprisingly poignant reveal at the end of the movie). Comparisons with other similar laconic characters like John Wick or even ‘The Man from Nowhere’ are inevitable, but Jang holds his own as Ui-gang, not least because he has the physique to boot.
That it otherwise lacks the complexities of plot or subtleties of character is deliberate; as Choi and screenwriter Nam Ji-woong will readily admit, this was meant to be a straight-up action film in the same way that the popular web-based novel that it is based on was. Yet in that regard, there is no denying that ‘The Killer’ delivers precisely the sort of unadulterated thrills which it promises, never overstaying its welcome by keeping the proceedings within a crisp and taut one-and-half-hour runtime.
So even as it is hardly original, ‘The Killer’ packs plenty of punch and firepower from start to finish. Its simplicity is also its elegance, the emphasis squarely on the well-choreographed action that is also uncompromisingly brutal. And coming after their equally hard-hitting ‘The Swordsman’, ‘The Killer’ reinforces the unique chemistry that Jang and his director Choi share, which are two very good reasons to believe in the bright future ahead for Korean action cinema.
Movie Rating:
(Brutal, thrilling and visceral, this straight-up action thriller packs plenty of punch and firepower)
Review by Gabriel Chong
SYNOPSIS: Bumbling dad Trevor tries to get the best of a cunning bee while house-sitting a posh mansion — but only unleashes more chaos in this comedy series.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Instead of returning to his unique brand of Bean comedy, Rowan Atkinson’s latest comedy series for Netflix focused its attention on a Bee. He is definitely not retooling Jerry Seinfeld’s Bee Movie for sure but rest assured Atkinson’s slapstick gags are back to win over a new generation of fans.
Besides co-creating the effort, Atkinson reunites with his Johnny English Strikes Again director, David Kerr for Man Vs Bee, a nine part series which ironically should be shown as a full-length feature movie. Running at a mere 10 minutes per episode, Atkinson plays Trevor, a man hired to homesit a high-tech mansion equipped with a voice-activated security system while the owners went vacationing. The job is simple enough but waging a battle against a bee that refuses to leave the premises is not.
Not just down on luck, Trevor is a man with issues. His ex-wife laments he should stop obsessing with little details which results in losing his past jobs over a trolley and a shredder. And rather than paying his attention on his upcoming camping trip with his daughter, he is obsessed in killing the buzzing lonely bee which supposedly has a backstory of being ousted from its beehive.
Man Vs Bee obviously is not a movie about compulsive behaviour or the wonders of nature, it’s a chaotic showdown between man and bee. Atkinson and Kerr keep the pacing frenetic and pulling off every creative way you can think off to kill a bee. From trapping it in a grand piano to a microwave to using a flame thrower, Trevor is as ruthless as Cruella de Vil though he is in actual fact very much a softie at heart.
A cute collie named Cupcake serves as Atkinson’s co-star for the most part. Cupcake adds to the chaos with its issue with nut allergy, magnetic collar and love for food which at one point nearly kills her. The comedy is cleverly confine to a single location which provides Trevor the perfect chance to destroy priceless artworks and a first-generation Jaguar. Even a trio of fumbling burglars are not spared from Trevor’s fumbling ways.
With rubber face Jim Carrey “retiring”, its fortunate that his British counterpart, Rowan Atkinson is as enthusiastic as ever. The 67-year-old still plays an accident-prone character to perfection with his trademark exaggerated body language and expressions. Man Vs Bee is an easy watch for the entire family. It doesn’t really make much of a sense on the whole but its hilarity and absurdity is British/Bean/Bee comedy at its best.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
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