SYNOPSIS: American Underdog tells the inspirational true story of Kurt Warner (Zachary Levi), who went from a stocking shelves at a grocery store to a two-time NFL MVP, Super Bowl champion, and Hall of Fame quarterback. The film centers on Warner’s unique story and years of challenges and setbacks that could have derailed his aspirations to become an NFL player – but just when his dreams seemed all but out of reach, it is only with the support of his wife, Brenda (Anna Paquin) and the encouragement of his family, coaches, and teammates that Warner perseveres and finds the strength to show the world the champion that he already is. American Underdog is an uplifting story that demonstrates that anything is possible when you have faith, family and determination. 

MOVIE REVIEW:

Everyone loves an underdog story even it is formulaic and predictable. American Underdog shines mainly because of its cast and an uplifting message about hope and dreams.

Based on a true story of NFL quarterback Kurt Warner (Zachary Levi), the movie traces the ups and downs of the legendary sports star who has to work the graveyard shift at the local supermarket to help support his partner, Brenda (Anna Paquin) and her two kids from an earlier marriage before he is drafted into the big league.

Aside from being a true story about a man who finally believes and fulfil his dreams, it’s also a faith- based family drama competently directed by the Erwin brothers known for their wholesome Christian films. Fortunately, American Underdog is not one flick that will deter the non-religious audiences because the Erwins successfully capture the essence of the main character and tells a compelling narrative from start to finish instead of mere religion preaching.

First of all, the story highlights the undying perseverance of Kurt Warner and despite all odds, he remarkably manages to join the St. Louis Rams only in his late twenties. And he of course has his supportive spouse to thank for, a lady who constantly encourages her husband to fulfil his ambition. Still, there’s a good measure of stumbling blocks in their relationship to overcome that helped shape their future family.

Warner of course has two lucky stars to thank for. Arena Football manager and coach Jim Foster (Bruce McGill) who gave him a start in the smaller scale football matches and grizzled football coach, Dick Vermeil (Dennis Quaid who appears late into the movie) who believes there is something in him that will make him the Ram’s quarterback.

While there are enough subplots and characters to fill up another movie, the chemistry and believable performances of Zachary Levi and Anna Paquin are the main factor that raises the movie by a few points. Taking into account, the well-staged finale that is infused with real-life footages, the entire effort while nothing groundbreaking is apparently inspiring and rousing. American Underdog is full of good intentions and there’s no harm in watching a heart-warming flick once a while.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee

SYNOPSIS: A JOURNAL FOR JORDAN is based on the true story of First Sergeant Charles Monroe King (Jordan), a soldier deployed to Iraq who begins to keep a journal of love and advice for his infant son. Back at home, senior New York Times editor Dana Canedy (Chanté Adams) revisits the story of her unlikely, life-altering relationship with King and his enduring devotion to her and their child. A sweeping account of a once-in-a-lifetime love, the film is a powerful reminder of the importance of family.

MOVIE REVIEW:

The great Denzel Washington went from directing Antwone Fisher to The Great Debaters to Fences and to this? This is a question you might ask yourself after watching A Journal for Jordan, a romantic drama adapted from a memoir by ex-New York Times editor Dana Canedy.

Not to discredit the work of Canedy but the movie adaptation fares more liked an African-American version of a typical Nicholas Sparks novel that features beautiful white man and woman. With little to distinguish itself from the sappy romantic titles in the market, it’s very much a wasted outing for Washington and leading man, Michael B. Jordan even though both are also serving as producers.

While the main theme is about the journal her late hubby kept for their infant son, the movie mostly derives from the perspective of Canedy (Chante Adams) who has a whirlwind romance with 1st Sergeant Charles Monroe King (Jordan), a thoughtful, handsome gentleman who loves the arts, God and his family.

Unavoidably, the first half is a romantic drama about two lovely people falling in love and getting together. Love is easy but staying together is the hardest as King must frequently go on his tour of duty and caring for his men on-and-off duty which Canedy finds hard to relate. But when you have two charismatic actors onscreen such as Jordan and Adams, it’s hard to fault the occasional over draggy and old-fashioned storyline as you probably be mesmerised by their sizzling chemistry than anything.

With the frequent use of awkward flashbacks and jump aheads, A Journal for Jordan starts to evolve into melodramatic territory in the third act. Obviously, it’s not so much of a spoiler to say that King is going to lose his life in Iraq and the emotional climax is simply about how Canedy’s celebrates King’s life with their now teenage son, Jordan and muses clumsily about politics, patriotism and fatherhood. Bear in mind she has been avoiding talking about her late partner with her son and friends all this time.

Perhaps A Journal for Jordan works better on paper than a feature length movie. And clearly, Washington’s stewardship doesn’t contribute much to the end material. It appears it has a lot to say given the various discussion on military, family and grief. Yet somehow, the real-life story just fail to translate convincingly onscreen.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee

Genre: Drama
Director: Maria Sadowska
Cast: Paulina Gałązka, Katarzyna Figura, Katarzyna Sawczuk, Olga Kalicka, Giulio Berruti, Józef Pawłowski, Andrea Preti, Iacopo Ricciotti, Luca Molinarir
Runtime: 2 hr 23 mins
Rating: R21 (Sexual Content and Mature Theme)
Released By: Encore Films
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 18 August 2022

Synopsis: Emi is a young ambitious girl who has been dreaming about a big world for years. Whenever an opportunity arises, she jumps into its modes without hesitation, becoming an exclusive escort. Soon it is she who, at the invitation of Arab sheikhs, begins to recruit Polish misses, celebrities, screen stars and models. However, this inaccessible, luxurious world will soon show its dark side.

Movie Review:

You’d wonder with a title like ‘Girls to Buy’ what sort of audience this Polish drama was hoping to attract; ditto its provocative poster, which suggests a softcore erotic thriller that you would find in the past screening at the old Yangtze cinema.

In more ways than one, those suspicions are not unfounded, especially as (female) director Maria Sadowska frequently employs the male gaze to capture the girls in her movie in various seductive poses or dressings. Yet as the voiceover narration reminds us from time to time, there is a deeper story and moral at the heart of the movie.

Told through the eyes of a struggling young woman named Emi (Paulina Galazka), it chronicles her rise and fall as she gets into the escort business, seizes an opportunity to become manager of her own troupe of female escorts, and then as she finds success encounters the dark and dangerous nature of the business.

Clocking in at close to two and a half hours, the film spans close to a decade of Emi’s life, beginning in the year 2000 somewhere near Szczecin with Emi yearning to escape the humble life that she has with her mother (Aleksandra Justa). Emi’s journey begins when she sneaks off to participate in a beauty pageant and meets the mother-daughter pair of Dorota (Katarzyna Figura) and Marianna (Katarzyna Sawczuk), who entice her to join their social escort enterprise with the promise of riches. From high-powered executives to politicians to footballers to gangsters, Emi’s clientele reveals just how much those with money will pay to satisfy their sexual desires.

On a trip to Monte Carlo five years after hitting it off (no pun intended) as an escort, Emi is fascinated by the suave agent Sam (Giulio Berruti), who engages social escorts to entertain guests on his luxurious yacht out at sea. After impressing him over a game of blackjack, Sam offers Emi a job to recruit 10 girls for a party with three Arab sheikhs at Courchevel; among the girls Emi lures for the job is the ingenuous Kamila (Olga Kalicka), whose life will be irrevocably scarred by the time she follows Emi to the next job Sam offers in Cannes.

In between Courchevel and Cannes, things get more complicated for Emi when she falls in love with Bartek (Józef Pawlowski), an earnest bloke from a well-to-do family who goes heads over heels for Emi. Not only will she have to try to keep up a façade when Bartek pops over to Cannes to surprise her, Emi will also have to deal with the anxieties of her new recruits, the misfortune of a hotel burglary and the manipulations of Sam and his Arab clients. It doesn’t end there, but what happens in Cannes will set the stage for Emi’s subsequent unravelling in Dubai.

Given the amount of ground it covers, it is somewhat inevitable that the narrative loses steam along the way. As consequential as Emi’s episode in Cannes is, Sadowska cannot keep up the momentum of the first act, so what should be a tense turning point for Emi and the film turns out oddly unfocused and uninvolving. Only during the last half hour does the movie regain its footing, finding its calling before it ends as a cautionary tale about a temptingly glamorous life that has its sinister side.

That it fails to be as compelling as it ought to be is by no fault of its actresses, who while will come across largely unknown to the audience here, will leave an impression for their daring and dedicated performances; instead, the fault lies with Sadowska and her trio of writers, who seem perfectly comfortable pandering to the baser instincts of the male members of their audience for a good part of the movie, before deciding to espouse a moral view on the issue of the international prostitution industry that has ensnared a good number of Eastern European young women.

To be sure, ‘Girls to Buy’ never once descend to the depths of a softcore erotic thriller, even as some sections veer quite closely to it. Yet that alone is not sufficient to elevate it to a morality tale, even as that may be the intention at the end of it all. Indeed, the pleasures here are ultimately superficial, which if you go by its title and poster, is just as well what those curious about this Yangtze-type title will be expecting..

Movie Rating:

(Not compelling enough as a morality tale or as a character-driven portrait of a sex worker, 'Girls to Buy' offers a polished but superficial look at a world that is temptingly glamorous but ultimately sinister)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: CG Animation
Director: Jared Stern
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Kate McKinnon, John Krasinski, Natasha Lyonne, Diego Luna, Keanu Reeves 
Runtime: 1 hr 46 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Mature References)
Released By: Warner Bros
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 1 September 2022

Synopsis: In "DC League of Super-Pets", Krypto the Super-Dog and Superman are inseparable best friends, sharing the same superpowers and fighting crime in Metropolis side by side. When Superman and the rest of the Justice League are kidnapped, Krypto must convince a rag-tag shelter pack - Ace the hound, PB the potbellied pig, Merton the turtle and Chip the squirrel - to master their own newfound powers and help him rescue the Super Heroes. Dwayne Johnson stars as the voice of Krypto the Super-Dog with Kevin Hart as Ace. Also stars the voices of Kate McKinnon, John Krasinski, Natasha Lyonne, Diego Luna and Keanu Reeves.

Movie Review:

If you’ve seen ‘Jumanji’ or ‘Central Intelligence’, you’ll understand why we’re looking forward to the reunion of Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart. Like their earlier collaborations, their latest sees the duo engage with perfect aplomb in anything from potty-related humour to deep conversations about what it means to truly love someone. It is no wonder that Hollywood’s ‘dynamic duo’ were called upon to voice Krypto and Ace – the former a loyal Labrador Retriever from Krypton with laser vision, the ability to fly and an alter ego who goes by the name of Bark Kent, and the latter a cynical, street-smart hound who is accidentally gifted with the power of invincibility – who are forced to team up with each other to stop a diabolical plan by a hairless guinea pig named Lulu (Kate McKinnon).

Whilst Warner Bros undertakes a fundamental review of its DC film strategy, ‘DC League of Super-Pets’ offers a delightfully nutty variation on what the DC super-hero universe could look like. Though the pets are undoubtedly the heroes of the film, this is also a Justice League movie, with not just Superman (John Krasinski) but also Wonder Woman (Jammela Jamil), Aquaman (Jemaine Clement), The Flash (John Early), female Green Lantern (Dascha Polanco), Cybrog (Daveed Diggs) and Batman (Keanu Reeves) showcasing not only their respective superhero idiosyncrasies but also their prospective affiliations to the animal species, whether is it to a cheery potbellied pig PB (Vanessa Bayer), a neurotic squirrel Chip (Diego Luna) or a lascivious turtle Merton (Natasha Lyonne).

We hardly blame Krypto for casting a doubtful eye at the ragtag group led by Ace who, though newly endowed with superpowers, is supposed to be the Justice League’s best hope at defeating their former animal shelter companion Lulu. Yet, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the combination of an invincible hound, a pig who can grow and shrink at will, a squirrel with the ability to control electricity and a lightning-fast turtle will eventually find it within themselves to overcome their fears and come together as a league to rescue the members of the Justice League, whom Lulu has kidnapped in a bid to please her former owner – and Superman’s nemesis – Lex Luthor (Marc Manon); and oh, we should mention too the army of super-guinea pigs whom Lulu commands, including a pair (Ben Schwartz and Thomas Middleditch) with the gift of fire and ice respectively who turn out to be inseparable.

Director and co-writer Jared Stern has injected some of the sardonism and self-awareness from ‘The Lego Batman Movie’, which he co-wrote, into his sophomore directorial effort. With help with co-writer John Whittington, Stern keeps the tone witty and irreverent, loaded with plenty of sight gags for the kids and tongue-in-cheek jokes for the adults (like Superman’s not-so-secret identity, or the impracticality of Wonder Woman’s invisible jet, or even Batman’s brooding). To their credit, the action is never frenetic, and never treats plot, character or dialogue as gap-filler; in fact, we dare say there is a fair amount of pathos around the relationship between pet and human, anchored on Ace’s tragic backstory of being given up by his owners because of a misunderstanding.

So even though ‘DC League of Super-Pets’ is probably a lightweight distraction against their larger universe-building mythology, it is nonetheless an amusing, clever and even affecting entry that makes the best of what it can within the DC canon. It is also blessed with a very talented roster of voice actors – besides reprising the winning match-up between Johnson and Hart, it also boasts the nuanced voice-work of Bayer and Lyonne, as well as a riotous McKinnon clearly having a ball with her verbose soliloquies of her character’s desire to be loved by Lex. Thanks to them, the puns, jokes, catty remarks and doggy banter ring loud, clear and exuberant – and like the title suggests, the result is super-charged fun.

Movie Rating:

(Amusing, clever and even affecting, this alternate take on the DC super-heroes and their pets is super-charged fun, thanks to a witty script and an excellent voice cast)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Action/Thriller
Director: Lee Jung-jae
Cast: Lee Jung-jae, Jung Woo Sung, Jeon Hye Jin, Heo Sung Tae, Go Youn Jung, Kim Jong Soo, Jung Man Sik
Runtime: 2 hrs 6 mins
Rating: NC16 (Violence)
Released By: Encore Films
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 1 September 2022

Synopsis: Can the hunted become the hunter? After a high-ranking North Korean official requests asylum, KCIA Foreign Unit chief Park Pyong-Ho (Lee Jung Jae) and Domestic Unit chief Jim Jung Do (Jung Woo Sung) are tasked with uncovering a North Korean spy, known as Donglim, who is deeply embedded within their agency. When the spy begins leaking top secret intel that could jeopardise national security, the two units are each assigned to investigate each other. In the tense situation where if they cannot find the mole, they may be accused themselves, Pyong-ho and Jung-do slowly start to uncover the truth. In the end, they must deal with an unthinkable plot to assassinate the South Korean President…

Movie Review:

Thanks to the unprecedented success of Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’, Lee Jung-jae is probably the most recognisable Korean actor around the world today. ‘Hunt’ therefore arrives at a perfect timing when Lee’s star is shining to show that the almost 50-year old actor is just as capable behind the camera as he is in front of it.

Indeed, by any measure, ‘Hunt’ is an ambitious step-up for Lee. Not only does he assume the lead role of Park Pyung-ho, the domestic chief of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA), Lee also directs and co-scripts this twisty espionage thriller set against the backdrop of the political chaos which rocked South Korea in the early 80s.

Opening in Washington D.C., the film kicks off (literally) with a bang as the South Korean president becomes the target of an assassination attempt during a State visit. Though the attempt is foiled, Park and his counterpart Kim Jung-do (Jung Woo-sung), the foreign chief of the KCIA, are taken to task by their director, who further suspects that there could be a mole within their organisation.

Instead of joining forces, Park and Kim find themselves distrusting each other even more when the former, on an operation in Tokyo to retrieve a high-profile North Korean defector, finds out that the latter’s special operations mission in North Korea has been compromised. To top it off, their new director instructs the two unit chiefs to investigate each other, which further fuels their mutual animosity.

Whilst their rivalry takes centre stage, it is hardly the be-all and end-all of a very busy narrative, which packs double-dealings, triple-crosses and betrayals within two tense hours. Lee certainly displays no lack of ambition juggling the dense thicket of plot complications amidst their spy-versus-spy game, and for the most part maintains just tight enough narrative control not to let things spin out of control.

It is also to Lee’s credit that he doesn’t let the film become dominated by Park and Kim alone, establishing the storytelling space instead for two compelling female supporting characters to emerge; that includes Yoo-jung (Go Youn-jung), a college student to whom Park looks after whose late father was Park’s informant, and Ju-kyung (Jeon Hye-jin), Park’s deputy whose resourcefulness proves tragically fatal after uncovering a shocking truth that resets the audience’s perspective for a blistering third act.

Indeed, it is not hard to see why Lee had chosen ‘Hunt’ for his debut behind the camera. It offers Lee a crackerjack role as Park, whose motivations turn out far more complex than what you would imagine at the start of the film. It also offers a classic match-up with Jung, the face-off between them one of the most intense we’ve seen in a long while on the big screen. And last but not least, it gives Lee the opportunity to execute a number of impressively slick action set-pieces with the help of sharp cinematography from Lee Mo-gae, including a gritty shootout along the streets of Tokyo, and a nail-biting climax with firefights, hand-to-hand clashes and explosions.

‘Hunt’ also excels at being bitter political commentary about the ramifications on governments, organisations and individuals when authoritarian leaders exploit the tools of power of the state to maintain their despotic reign. Besides highlighting a unique period in South Korean history when peaceful unification was to many far more than a pipe dream, it also hints at the complex relationship between the South and the US, as well as how such realities will inevitably create dysfunction even amongst those tasked to preserve peace and security in the country.

Even though it does get over-the-top at times, ‘Hunt’ never loses its storytelling propulsion, and is probably one of the finest conspiracy thrillers we’ve seen from Korean cinema. Besides packing in plenty of plot, it is also action-filled, character-driven and psychologically nuanced, adding layers to a rich and well-crafted narrative which borrows from the events of South Korea’s political history to offer some thoughtful lessons for today’s state of politics and geopolitics. And coming after ‘Squid Game’, ‘Hunt’ shores up Lee’s newfound genre status by reinforcing his talent both in front and behind the camera.

Movie Rating:

(Told with utter suspense, drama and emotion, 'Hunt' is a crackerjack spy-versus-spy thriller that boasts two compelling lead stars, character-driven action, and a twisty plot with lessons for today's political realities)

Review by Gabriel Chong 

Genre: Action/Adventure
Director: Chalit Kraileadmongkon, Chitpol Ruanggun
Cast: Pichaya Nitipaisalkul, Dhanantorn Neerasingh, Gena Natthacha De Souza, Supachai Suwannanon
Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins
Rating: TBA
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 1 September 2022

Synopsis: Kao wants to be a famous singer in Bangkok. However, he has never reached an inch of his goal. Kao has a buddy named Jane, who is also a singer. Jane is always on his side when he is down. One day, Kao learns that his grandfather has passed away. He decides to return to his hometown, which he has never visited for many years. Kao asks Jane to go along with him. In the meantime, the mayor of Kao's hometown organizes the water field drilling competition to win a grand prize of 1 million Baht. Fon, Kao's ex-lover, is one of the organizing team. When Fon meets Kao at his grandfather's funeral, she asks him to join the competition. At first, Kao rejects her request. Nevertheless, when he thinks of his grandfather's determination to search for water resources for his hometown but is never successful, he decides to join the competition with his teammates, including Jane and Tim. On the day of the competition, all contestants do not become aware that 10 meters beneath the ground, there is a gigantic lizard hiding silently. The sound of roaring engines above the ground wakes the monster up. She begins to hunt contestants one by one. Some are either eaten alive or captured and taken to the monster's nest under the ground. Fon is also one of the captives. Running out of time, he and other competitors join forces to hunt the giant lizard to save Fon and others from being eaten alive.

Movie Review:

After decades of churning out countless horror flicks, the Thai movie industry finally came up with their very own version of a monster movie starring a gigantic butterfly lizard who preys and lives underground.

Embroiled in a drug scandal and with the death of his grandpa Wut, popstar Kao (Golf Pichaya Nitipaisankul) decides to go back to his hometown for a visit together with his cousin, Jane (Natthacha De Souza). Coincidentally, his ex-girlfriend, Fon (Dhanantorn Neerasingh), a famous YouTuber and the Mayor is holding a water drilling contest where the winner will walk away with a prize money of one million baht.

Partly to fulfil his late grandpa’s wish of searching for fresh water resources, Kao and Jane teams up with his grandpa’s assistant, Yo (Supachai Suwananon) and join the rest of the water diggers in the competition not knowing a mutated giant lizard is on the loose and she is not just deadly but very hungry.

While the filmmakers are eager to build a monster movie with a touch of Thai culture to compete with Hollywood and other international markets, Leio feels very much out of league and definitely takes its inspiration too seriously to make it a worthwhile trip to the theatres to catch it.

Frankly, the entire story takes a long while to get its gears started, 45 minutes to be exact before we see any action of sorts. We know they are trying to pull a Jaws/Jurassic Park where we don’t see the creature till late into the movie. But hey, Leio is not that kind of movie that has the depth, characters and plot to sit through. And the latter basically spent that amount of time setting up Kao and Fon’s backstories and frequent flashbacks to their youth where Grandpa Wut is seen as the village’s nobleman and stuff.

It’s a nice touch but again, this is not the kind of movie for sentimental moves and tears. The usual slapstick and comedy gag we expect from Thai comedies are strangely lacking here with the exception of one comical scene where a trio of water diggers joked about monsters, ghosts and pee only to meet their gruesome deaths in the dark of night. It would be a saving grace if there are enough goofy characters to populate the movie but even the sole antagonist, lusty Boss Mee looks utterly uninteresting. Thus there’s only Kao and Fon’s on/off romance which is entirely predictable and boring.

And to address the elephant in the room, in this case the gigantic lizard. The creature in all honesty is not impressive despite being mostly shown in broad daylight. The CG effects done by visual effects company, Fat Cat Studios is pretty awful and unconvincing especially on a big screen. It’s quite a pity consider Leio is their first venture into releasing a full-length movie and their founder, Chalit Krileadmongkon is also the director.

It isn’t all that bad consider Krileadmongkon stages a few exhilarating sequences which had the lizard burrowing out of the ground attacking unsuspecting victims. The highlight of course has the creature falling asleep on a top of a truck like a lazy sloth with Mee and Jane trying to escape to their van. Unfortunately, this sort of clever scenes are few and far, we just think it would be much better if there are more adrenalin inducing bits included.

Even if the filmmakers meant to approach Leio as a cheesy B-monster movie, it lacks a lot of fun and absurdity to make things work. Halfway through, a character mentioned about a movie about underground creatures, obviously he is referencing Tremors (1990) starring Kevin Bacon. And that for the matter is truly a fantastic B-monster movie.

Movie Rating:

(Lacking believable CGI and flat-out campy fun, Leio doesn’t live up to its expectation of being a watchable B-movie)

Review by Linus Tee

Genre: Comedy/Fantasy
Director: Chen Sicheng
Cast: Huang Bo, Rong Zishan, Yao Chen, Fan Wei, Huangyang Tiantian 
Runtime: 2 hrs 16 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 25 August 2022

Synopsis: Ren Dawang (Huang Bo) wishes for his astronomy enthusiast son Ren Xiaotian (Rong Zishan) to become a pianist and their differences have become a source of their constant quarrels. One day, a mysterious alien Mozart appears before them. Mozart helps Ren Xiaotian in a "battle of wits and courage" against his father. What Ren Xiaotian never expected was that Mozart came to Earth with another mission…

Movie Review:

By any measure, it would have been terribly challenging to follow up after the wildly successful ‘Detective Chinatown’ trilogy. What then motivated writer-director Chen Sicheng to do so with this whimsical science-fiction comedy is anybody’s guess, but we’re quite sure the reception won’t be anywhere as raucous. Yet though it doesn’t boast the same wacky sense of humour, ‘Mozart from Space’ is a surprisingly heartfelt drama that bears more than a worthy lesson or two about parent-child expectations.

Key to that is the surprisingly poignant relationship between the 13-year-old Ren Xiaotian (Rong Zishan) and his father Ren Dawang (Huang Bo), who live together in a humble apartment after his parents’ divorce. Xiaotian dreams of being an astronomer, but Dawang wants only for his son to become the next Lang Lang; and despite Xiaotian’s protests, Dawang insists on nothing less than for Xiaotian to spend at least half an hour each day practicing on the grand piano in his room.

At school, Xiaotian often daydreams in class, much to the chagrin of his literature teacher Mr Deng (Jia Bing). Xiaotian’s only friend in school is a bespectacled nerd named Xi Hao (Wang Yiming), and he has a crush on a sweet schoolmate named Jie Ling (Huangyang Tiantian). All that changes when Xiaotian is visited by an alien being named Mozart who takes over the panda stuffed toy he had received from his younger stepbrother; and whilst Xiaotian is intrigued by Mozart’s super powers, it turns out that the latter has been sent from the future for a very important mission.

It isn’t difficult to guess that the mission has something to do with ensuring that Xiaotian fulfils his dreams of becoming an astronomer; nor for that matter is it hard to fathom that Xiaotian and Mozart will develop an indelible bond which will lead to one risking his life in order to save the other. At 2 hours and 15 minutes though, that journey gets a little too self-indulgent for its own good, especially as it aims to weave in a school bully Ma Yuan (Fang Zhou) and a cult devoted to alien worship led by a self-delusional princess (Yao Chen) into the narrative.

It is to Chen’s credit that he manages to pull these disparate strings together into a coherent whole in the last half-hour, with Xiaotian rallying his friends to save Mozart and Dawang joining in to help his son after having an epiphany about his parenting ways. Indeed, Dawang’s reason for compelling Xiaotian to become a world-class pianist is an affecting reminder of the inevitable tendencies parents cast on their children, often borne out from their own past experience, however well-intentioned that may be. The ending is also a heart-warming affirmation of the importance of supporting our children in pursuing their ambitions, and a tidy finish for an otherwise untidy film.

Though comparisons with the ‘Detective Chinatown’ series have not been kind, Chen’s follow-up still holds its own disorderly charm, in part from a genuinely likeable performance by Rong as Xiaotian as well as a delightfully wry turn from a stuffed toy panda. At the very least, the young ones won’t be bored despite its overly indulgent runtime, while parents will resonate not only with Dawang’s anxieties but also Chen’s artistic choices (such as his interpretation of the classic ‘Moon River’). If you’re in the mood for whimsy-feely, you’ll find plenty of feels with ‘Mozart from Space’.

Movie Rating:

(Equal parts whimsical and heart-warming, 'Mozart from Space' makes up for its over-indulgence with sincerity, heart and laughs)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Drama/Thriller
Director: Mahalia Belo
Cast: Jodie Comer, Joel Fry, Katherine Waterston, Gina McKee, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch 
Runtime: 1 hr 42 mins
Rating: NC16 (Nudity and Scene of Intimacy)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 18 January 2024

Synopsis: When an environmental crisis sees London submerged by flood waters, a young family is torn apart in the chaos. As a woman and her newborn try and find their way home, the profound novelty of motherhood is brought into sharp focus in this intimate and poetic portrayal of family survival.

Movie Review:

Set against a climate catastrophism background, the Jodie Comer starrer unfolds with a bathtub filling to the brim with a heavily pregnant woman getting into it before her waters break - a symbolic parallelism of what’s happening to Mother Earth.

With their lives eclipsed by demises, one after another, the new mum (Comer) and dad (Joel Fry) are just as vulnerable as the infant when it comes to navigating through the unfeeling world that lay bare before them. While experiencing a normal motherhood sans the racket seems to be just a reverie, Comer’s character which is endearingly known as Woman/Mother, is called to create a womb-like safe haven for her little one amidst the mayhem that separates them from her hubby.

Routing through erratic behaviour, stampedes while clamouring for rations, suicide, crimes, violence and much more forbidding episodes, Comer who’s hailed as a national treasure and Liverpool’s finest, seamlessly embodies the role of a strong-willed mama that battles the surge of emotions that comes in magnitude of tidal waves, while gradually regressing back to basics.

And through every step of the ordeal, Mother (Comer) somehow feels that her son is owed an apology for the ordeal that she has put him through. And almost like a cheeky yet assuring riposte, the infant's exultant gurgles dispel rubbles of chaos that seems never-ending.

Global warming clearly isn't solely about environmental hazards such as flash floods, landslides and the like. In the film that is based on a novel by Megan Hunter, climate emergency is definitely depicted as something that’s no longer the kind where the sun would start shining and everything will be rosy once again. It swells to a severity where boats start sailing on the roads in place of buses. And with such catastrophic extremity, people are instigated to hulk into beastly beings in the name of survival. While it’s not exactly an end- of-the-world flick, the emotive eye-opener, that features some maternal nudity and the almost obligatory dry English humour interjections, depicts it faultlessly.

The novel-to-screen adaptation by Alice Birch is far from a narrative that’s based on a singular character’s perspective. With a multi-faceted plot, it's far more abysmal than just an account of a woman who positively goes against the tide with her newborn. It's something that a collective as big as the world should be fretting over as we trail the mother-child duo from the time of their lives falling apart till the time she decides to have a closure that marks a full circle. The poignance of unadulterated friendships and Joel Fry’s screentime certainly propels the plot forward and not forgetting the spectacular cast (yes, you’d catch Benedict Cumberbatch’s toothy smile in this one) that bestuds the entire 106-minute of Mahalia Belo’s direction. The stimulating trailer of the British survival film with a female director, two female writers and a female lead indubitably hits a that’s-how-you-do-it vein with not every character divulged in the minute and a half. An ideal measure of intrigue, confusion and the need to know more is spawned.

The highly-biddable plot that could also be dubbed as a fairly lethargic survival film, the most believable disaster drama, or even one that is of a post-apocalyptic destruction genre, is a blend of A Quiet Place meets Children of Men with some hints of The Last of Us.

Movie Rating:

(With soul-baring performances and an unfiltered message nailed in an all too convincing fashion, The End We Start From is no less than a big screen prelude to what's creeping up on us in years to come)

Review by Asha Gizelle Mariadas

Genre: Animation
Director: Tetsuro Kodama
Cast: Masako Nozawa, Toshio Furukawa, Aya Hisakawa, Ryō Horikawa, Mayumi Tanaka, Takeshi Kusao, Yūko Minaguchi, Yūko Minaguchi, Miyu Irino, Hiroshi Kamiya, Mamoru Miyano, Volcano Ota, Ryota Takeuchi  
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence)
Released By: Sony Pictures
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 1 September 2022

Synopsis: The Red Ribbon Army was once destroyed by Son Goku. Individuals, who carry on its spirit, have created the ultimate Androids, Gamma 1 and Gamma 2. These two Androids call themselves “Super Heroes”. They start attacking Piccolo and Gohan… What is the New Red Ribbon Army’s objective? In the face of approaching danger, it is time to awaken, Super Hero!

Movie Review:

If you grew up in the 80s and owned the complete collection of Dragon Ball manga, you were probably the object of envy for many kids. Here’s a recap if you have a vague memory of what Dragon Ball was about. Inspired by the Chinese folklore Journey to the West, the story begins by introducing an adorable boy names Son Goku who trains in martial arts and goes on adventures in search of the seven much sought after Dragon Balls, which have the power to summon a wish granting dragon when gathered. Along the way, Goku makes friends and enemies, and grows into a super strong dude with an out of this world bod that you’d only see in comics.

The craze was real, as kids scrambled to own collectible trading cards (remember the limited edition glittery ones?), action figures and video games. Decades later, no thanks to adulthood, most of us wouldn’t be keeping track of how the Dragon Ball story has evolved. One thing for sure, it isn’t about going after the seven Dragon Balls anymore.

In this awesome animated film, fans can relive the good moments, whether you are aware of what’s happening in the Dragon Ball universe. Directed by Tetsuro Kodama, produced by Toei Animation and written by Dragon Ball series creator Akira Toriyama, so you can be sure the 21^st Dragon Ball feature film is as authentic as it can get, and will be a joy to sit through.

This is the second film where Goku foes not have any involvement in the overall conflict. You can tell from the movie poster that the protagonist is Piccolo, a member of an extraterrestrial humanoid species called Namekians. The green guy was responsible for training Goku's eldest child Gohan in martial arts, and the two have formed a strong bond. In this movie, they have to join forces and defeat the newly formed Red Ribbon Army. The villainous organisation headed by Magenta, with the help of an almost comical Dr Hedo, is obviously trying to take over the world. And it is up to Piccolo and Gohan, together with some other familiar Dragon Ball characters, to stop their evil plans.

We haven’t been keeping up with Dragon Ball’s story development over the years, so there is a little catching up to do when the film introduces these characters. But when the childhood memories of the familiar characters come back, you’ll enjoy the movie from start to finish. The story does explain some bits, and the film can easily be a standalone title that viewers with no background knowledge can enjoy. Fans of Goku need not fret, because he and Vegeta (another old time favourite) do appear in a sequence that takes place in another location. They also return in a post credits scene.

The animation is breathtaking and while there are some cute moments that will make you chuckle, the action packed sequences are what that will make your jaw drop. The best part of the 100 minute movie is saved for the finale battle with Cell Max, the monster created by Red Ribbon. It is a battle that is exhilarating and beautifully animated, and watching it on the big screen is the only way to be fully immersed in the action.

Movie Rating:

(Beautifully animated with exhilarating action sequences, this awesome movie is a must-watch, whether you're a fan of the Dragon Ball franchise or not)

Review by John Li

Genre: Thriller/Horror
Director: Jessica M. Thompson
Cast: Nathalie Emmanuel, Thomas Doherty, Stephanie Corneliussen, Alana Boden, Courtney Taylor, Hugh Skinner, Sean Pertwee 
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins
Rating: NC16 (Scene Of Intimacy & Some Violence)
Released By: Sony Pictures
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 25 August 2022

Synopsis: After the death of her mother and having no other known relatives, Evie (Nathalie Emmanuel) takes a DNA test...and discovers a long-lost cousin she never knew she had. Invited by her newfound family to a lavish wedding in the English countryside, she’s at first seduced by the sexy aristocrat host but is soon thrust into a nightmare of survival as she uncovers twisted secrets in her family’s history and the unsettling intentions behind their sinful generosity. 

Movie Review:

To be frank, we weren’t quite sure what to expect from ‘The Invitation’, notwithstanding its high-concept premise. Those who have seen the trailers would probably be similarly intrigued by just what the titular invite is all about, after being teased a modern-day Gothic vampire thriller in which a young woman from New York is invited to a lavish wedding in the English countryside whereupon she chances on old weirdos in masks, obscenely wealthy creeps, racist butlers, disposable hired help and oh, vampires. We cannot say though that our curiosity was entirely satiated, but it is probably good enough that this late-summer low-budget horror did not leave us hungry.

The said young woman is aspiring ceramicist Evie (Nathalie Emmanuel), who lives from paycheck to paycheck on a catering gig. Evie is still grieving over the recent death of her mother, which explains why she decides to use a DNA testing kit she finds in a swag bag she helps herself to at a swanky party for Find Yourself. Her search turns up a match in a long-lost cousin named Oliver (Hugh Skinner), an overly enthusiastic Brit who immediately invites her on an all expenses paid trip to attend a family wedding at an English manor. Upon arriving at the property, Evie takes a shine to the lord of the residence, Walter (Thomas Doherty).

Their budding romance is one half of the focus of the first hour, the other of which concerns the sinister events lurking within the castle walls. Not only are the new maids numbered, they also seem to disappear from sight once they are assigned to clean the manor’s library, which is kept under lock and key and that Evie is told not to enter.  Evie also suspects that someone is in her room watching her as she sleeps at night, and is startled one evening by a bird smacking dead into her bedroom window. Whilst it is understandable why the obvious answers to these happenings are withheld from us at the start, it is lamentable that it takes close to an hour to get to the reveal, and by that time, struggles to build any real sense of mystery or suspense.

Without giving away too much, ‘The Invitation’ only gets to the wedding dinner party where Evie sees the true horror of her host and fellow guests in full display at the hour mark, before rushing through a conclusion which sees her embrace her newfound powers in order to overpower Lord Walter and the condescending maid of honour Viktoria (Stephanie Corneliussen). As much as she tries, director Jessica M. Thompson fails to compensate for the lethargy of the second act with the pace of her final act. It is also a pity that Brian Butler’s script doesn’t develop the mythology of these vampires further, not least their unusual ability to be able to walk around in broad daylight and do other things that make it easy to escape detection.

Nor for that matter does the film fully lean into issues of race, class and social privilege compellingly enough to become sharp social critique. Early on in the film, Evie has a run-in with the lead butler Mr. Fields (Sean Pertwee) when she stands up for the maids whom had dropped a tray of wine glasses after she accidentally bumps into them. Not long after, Evie calls out both her White relatives and Walt for his ostentatious privilege. But other than a late reminder of ‘wealth, power, a life of privilege, and a sense of belonging’ which she is told her union with Walt will bring, the movie otherwise doesn’t know how to take aim at the social issues it gestures at, leaving its attempt at social commentary half-baked at best.

Yet even though ‘The Invitation’ is hardly as intelligent as ‘Get Out’, it still is entertaining enough as a late-summer genre offering. Like we said, the pace could certainly have been tighter, but the third act, though rushed, leans into B-movie tropes to deliver some satisfying final act fights and last-minute comeuppance. Evie’s transformation from damsel in distress to vampire slayer will have you cheering in your seats; ditto the epilogue that sees Evie and her best friend Grace (Courtney Taylor) team up to seek revenge on the one that got away. So while we cannot say we were left utterly gratified, those who accept this invitation will find a sufficiently diverting horror thriller that they can sink their teeth in.

Movie Rating:

(The kind of late-summer diversion just passably entertaining enough for you to sink your teeth into, 'The Invitation' won't make you regret that you had RSVP-ed)

Review by Gabriel Chong