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BARBIE HSU (徐熙媛) (1976 - 2025)Posted on 03 Feb 2025 |
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Osgood Perkins
Cast: Theo James, Elijah Wood, Colin O'Brien, Rohan Campbell, Tatiana Maslany, Sarah Levy, Osgood Perkins
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Rating: M18 (Violence and Gore)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 20 February 2025
Synopsis: Based on the Stephen King short story, and produced by James Wan (The Conjuring, Saw), The Monkey is a new trip from Longlegs writer/director, Osgood Perkins. When twin brothers find a mysterious wind-up monkey, a series of outrageous deaths tear their family apart. Twenty-five years later, the monkey begins a new killing spree forcing the estranged brothers to confront the cursed toy.
Movie Review:
A toy monkey that causes gruesome deaths every time it bangs its drum. That’s it. That’s the premise of this horror movie (some question whether it can be regarded as a comedy) directed by Osgood Perkins. This time round, he has adapted a 1980 short story by Stephen King.
The American author known as the “King of Horror” has reportedly given his stamp of approval for Perkin’s adaptation, even calling it "batsh-t insane" and "admirable". This is enough to get fans of the horror genre flocking into the cinema to get scared sh-tless.
Perkins kept the basic premise of the original with the creepy toy, and made quite a bit of changes to his version. After a quick introduction to the kind of power the toy monkey holds, we see a young Hal (Christian Convery) and his twin brother Bill (also Convery) growing up in what seems like a normal household. The cursed toy belongs to the boys’ deceased father. We also learn that Hal is shy and timid, while Bill is loud and vicious. And this will eventually lead to the tragic death of their loving mother (Tatiana Maslany), no thanks to the toy monkey.
Then we follow an adult Hal (Theo James), who looks rather miserable. Life hasn’t been kind to him. He no longer keeps in touch with Bill (also James) and is also estranged from his own son Petey. His ex-wife and her new husband are planning to adopt Petey fully, and things are not looking good at all. Cue the return of the toy monkey, which was supposedly disposed by Hal and Bill while they were still kids. And expectedly, more bloody deaths happen.
Perkins has shown us how slow-burning movies can be terrifying as well with Longlegs (2024), which left viewers in chills long after the credits rolled. He does it again in his latest work. The movie doesn’t deliver scares like a typical horror flick. There is something offbeat with how the deaths happen on screen. As a viewer, you know something is going to happen whenever the evil toy starts drumming. The victim is killed in the most morbid manner, but yet it doesn’t feel exploitative. Someone is killed by a harpoon, another is lit on fire, while a poor girl is decapitated. There is something funny about these sequences, and you can hear nervous sniggers and chuckles in the theatre. It takes a filmmaker who has a somewhat sick sense of humour to do this.
With an agreeable 95-minute runtime, Perkins manages to pace the plot development well. Things get really out of control as the movie progresses. As Hal and Bill come face to face in the latter’s hideout, truths are revealed while the monkey is causing countless deaths happening outside – this is when Perkins has gone all out with disgusting and gory deaths that almost wipes out an entire town. What’s also surprisingly affecting is how he also gets his characters to embrace closure with an odd but satisfying ending, which you will think about after the credits roll.
Movie Rating:
(Osgood Perkins delivers another offbeat horror flick that will have you squirming and chuckling at the same time)
Review by John Li
Genre: Comedy
Director: Ryon Lee
Cast: Ah Niu, Hong Hui Fang, Vivienne Oon, Yuan Teng, Steve Yap, Meeki Ng, KK Wong, Henn, Sai Chuan, Elaine Wong, Aiden Wu, Olio Tan, E. Ramanamohan, Dennis Chew
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Sexual References)
Released By: mm2 Entertainment
Official Website:
Opening Day: 6 February 2025
Synopsis: Gao Zhi Tian(46) is going through a divorce with his wife Luo Si Fen(43) and also experiencing significant estrangement from their grown-up children. As the Lunar New Year approaches, both insist on spending the holiday at their respective parents’ homes. Unwilling to sadden each other’s elderly parents, they decide to temporarily conceal their divorce plans and continue with the New Year celebration in an Airbnb on the mountain. However, Gao Zhi Tian and Luo Si Fen get into a heated conflict during the trip caused nobody anticipates that Gao Zhi Tian’s mother, Grandma Du, would faint and fall into a coma. A mysterious figure claiming to be Mr. Fox suddenly appears. He asserts that he possesses magical powers and can send Gao Zhi Tian back to the day of the New Year accident, offering him a chance to alter history. Under the guidance of Mr. Fox, Gao Zhi Tian and his family repeatedly travel back to the day of the accident, adhering to strict conditions to avoid disrupting the balance of the universe. They tirelessly brainstorm ways to alter history and prevent Grandma Du’s accident.
Movie Review:
Malaysia’s folksy pop singer turned actor turned filmmaker Ah Niu returns to star in yet another Chinese New Year offering after Huat Ah! Huat Ah! and Homecoming. Consider this is just one of the many CNY offerings from Malaysia that gets a theatrical release locally, this better be a good one to catch on the big screen or is it?
Gao Zhi Tian (Ah Niu) is a convenience store owner about to sign the divorce agreement paper with his much successful wife, live-streamer Luo Si Fen (Vivienne Oon). Since Chinese New Year is round the corner, they decide to gather one last time for their reunion dinner. Tian bringing her mother, Doo (Hong Huifang) while Fen bringing her father to an apartment on a hilltop for the gathering.
Expectedly things happened. Tian and Fen had a quarrel and Tian angrily stormed out midway with Doo chasing after him. Out of nowhere, a car knocked into Doo causing her to suffer from a brain concussion. But wait, this is a Chinese New Year title after all. Thus a Cat God appears to offer Tian eight chances to alter the past. The trick is not to let your past self meets your present self else the time travelling gimmick will reset itself. The device? No offence but it looks hilariously like an enlarged tampon stick.
Let’s be frank, Blooms of Happiness has a well-meaning message even if the entire movie is not exactly well-thought and mostly haphazard. To add on, lack of any serious laughs.
For the most part the comedy relies heavily on the time travelling gags. First, the Cat God appears randomly in any random form. The deity can appears as a homeless man, an Indian national, a buxom woman and a trans performer. The numerous time-travelling voyages which took up more than half the runtime unfortunately lack the wittiness and silliness to make things work. In fact, the jokes are often awkwardly crammed together and the supposedly punchlines hardly offer any chuckles. Mainly, the various lead characters just had a wild time running along corridors, around the bedrooms or concocting their next voyage in the store’s toilet.
The mistake here is simply packing too much into a story that doesn’t require so. There are talks of butterfly effects, obvious reference to Back to the Future and the danger of altering history. All in all which the super-thin plot never materialises. Instead, the comedy throws in a couple of syrupy moments and over-sentiments to wrap up the whole story of a mother’s love for her son.
Though Ah Niu offers no musical interludes this time round, he makes a decent effort as a failed husband and son. Vivienne Oo who is relatively new to the movie scene has a surprisingly breakout moment near the end where she pretends to be a woman in labour. Our dear Ajooma, Mediacorp actress Hong Huifang delivers a serviceable job in a role that hardly requires an ounce of her acting talent. Another local familiar face, DJ Dennis Chew oddly appears not as Aunty Lucy but horrifyingly as Neza and Goddess of Mercy.
Eventually, the movie chugs along serving more drama in the longer than necessary runtime and generates a truckload of cringe worthy dialogue, weak gags that worn out its welcome. If Blooms of Happiness has stick to it’s simplicity of delivering a heart-warming drama with a time travelling or deity twist then at least it’s more tolerable and engaging.
Movie Rating:
(The idea is good, the execution not bloomingly so)
Review by Linus Tee
Genre: Comedy/Action
Director: Jonathan Eusebio
Cast: Ke Huy Quan, Ariana DeBose, Daniel Wu, Mustafa Shakir, Lio Tipton, Cam Gigandet, Marshawn “beastmode” Lynch, André Eriksen, Rhys Darby, Sean Astin, Drew Scott
Runtime: 1 hr 23 mins
Rating: NC16 (Violence and Coarse Language)
Released By: UIP
Official Website:
Opening Day: 6 February 2025
Synopsis: From 87North—producers of the groundbreaking action films Nobody, Violent Night, Bullet Train, Atomic Blonde and The Fall Guy—comes a visceral, high-octane story of wrath and revenge. Quan stars as Marvin Gable, a realtor working the Milwaukee suburbs, where ‘For Sale’ signs bloom. Gable receives a crimson envelope from Rose (Oscar® winner ARIANA DeBOSE; West Side Story, Argylle), a former partner-in-crime that he had left for dead. She’s not happy. Now, Marvin is thrust back into a world of ruthless hitmen, filled with double-crosses and open houses turned into deadly warzones. With his brother Knuckles (DANIEL WU; Tomb Raider, Warcraft), a volatile crime lord, hunting him, Marvin must confront the choices that haunt him and the history he never truly buried.
Movie Review:
Former child star Ke Huy Quan makes a grand comeback to the big screen after the success of Oscar winner, Everything Everywhere All At Once. Undeniably, his career is on the rise with small roles in Loki, Kung Fu Panda 4 and more. With Love Hurts, Ke finally lands his first leading role three years after starring as Waymond Wong.
Made by the people who gave you stylised actioners liked John Wick, Nobody and Violent Night, Love Hurts know its targeted audiences so the filmmakers don’t really bother delivering an out-of-the-box watching experience.
Ke stars as Marvin Gable, a rather successful, optimistic realtor working in the suburban. He is focused on delivering the best service to his potential clients until one day, he received a mysterious red envelope. From that moment, he knows his terrifying past is catching up with him. His former love interest, Rose (Ariana DeBose) is planning to reveal the truth to Marvin’s brother, Knuckles (not Sonic’s friend but Hong Kong actor Daniel Wu) who wants her to return the money she stolen from him.
You see, Marvin is an ex-assassin who has previously spare Rose’s life because he is smitten with her. And thus, Love Hurts reeks like any other action movies out there. An ex-agent, cop, killer, soldier whatever is back in action and he is out to serve some cold revenge to those waiting to harm him or his love ones.
Running at a lean 83 minutes, almost 10 minutes shorter than Bob Odenkirk’s Nobody, Love Hurts falls short in almost every aspect. We have already mentioned the all too familiar plotting but the narrative goes far longer in elaborating the meaning of love and Valentine’s day. The messages are exhausting liked Marvin failing to express his true feelings for Rose to a killer dubbed The Raven (Mustafa Shakir) who falls in love with Marvin’s assistant, Ashley (Lio Tipton) to another henchman lamenting about his wife.
Yes we know, we get it. Love hurts right?
Nobody is paying tickets to catch a 87North production for the love story, we are here for the fight choreography and bone-snapping. And to its credit, the movie did deliver three sequences mainly hand to hand combat between Marvin and two of Knuckles’ henchmen King (Marshawn Lynch) and Otis (André Eriksen). Ke at 55 is still impressive with his moves and his work as a former stunt performer actually benefits him a lot here. The biggest problem however lies in the choreographed fight scenes which seriously lacks in variety and creativity as compared to 87North previous works.
After Kraven the Hunter, Ariana DeBose is again wasted in a negligible role. Daniel Wu gets to be a boba-loving villain who has limited screen appearances to make an impact though he has a brief tussle with his onscreen “younger” brother (Wu is actually six years younger than Ke). Oh there is also Sean Astin (Ke’s Goonies mate) cameoing as Marvin’s boss.
We wanted very much to love Ke’s action outing and it really hurts us to say this, Love Hurts simply isn’t that good. The story is a yawnfest, the bloodshed and action sequences aren’t that impressive and the movie looks like it’s shot entirely in the studio lot. Maybe the movie will do well enough for a part two since the budget is paltry. Who knows. Maybe it will redeem itself then.
Movie Rating:
(We don’t hate or love it. It hurts when you are indecisive)
Review by Linus Tee
Genre: Western/Drama
Director: Kevin Costner
Cast: Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Giovanni Ribisi, Will Patton, Jamie Campbell Bower, Jena Malone, Owen Crow Shoe, Tatanka Means, Ella Hunt, Danny Huston, Tom Payne, Abbey Lee, Michael Rooker, Luke Wilson, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jeff Fahey
Runtime: 3 hrs 2 mins
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scene and Some Violence)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:
Opening Day: 13 March 2025
Synopsis: Spanning the four years of the Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, Costner’s ambitious cinematic adventure will take audiences on an emotional journey across a country at war with itself, experienced through the lens of families, friends and foes all attempting to discover what it truly means to be the United States of America.
Movie Review:
Horizon: An American Saga—Chapter 1 is the passion project that got Kevin Costner into leaving the lucrative hit series, Yellowstone. Not only that, Costner reportedly has to spend millions of his own money to co-finance his planned four-film Western epic. Even though the first two were shot back to back, the first chapter released theatrically last year was a straight flop thus making the last two chapters in a limbo state.
For a start, patience is a prerequisite to sit through this three hours western. And by that, we mean lots of patience. Horizon definitely is not made for the casual audiences. You probably need to be a western fan or an avid reader of America early history to appreciate Costner’s sprawling effort.
By not adopting a straight-forward narrative, the grandeur of Horizon is told in somewhat non inter-connected stories, filled with numerous characters and settings. The story started with an Apache raid which killed innocent European settlers, burning their tents and houses. Among the survivors are a young settlement boy, Russell, a widow Frances (Sienna Miller) and her daughter, Elizabeth. Soon after, the orphaned Russell follows a bunch of bounty hunters to avenge the death of his parents while Frances seek refuge under the United States Union Cavalry led by First Lt. Trent Gephardt (Sam Worthington) and ahem, falls in love with him.
Another story involves a woman, Ellen Harvey (Jena Malone) who shot a man dead and now his ruthless brothers, Caleb and Junior (Jamie Campbell Bower and Jon Beavers) are hot on her heels. Then there is Matthew Van Weyden (Luke Wilson) who is leading a group of settlers including a pair of Brit tourists across potentially violent terrains. Who can forget about the Apache warrior, Pionsenay (Owen Crow Shoe) who has earlier ignored his tribal leader to commit the earlier mentioned raid against the settlers.
So where is Kevin Costner who also stars, produces, writes and directs the movie? Well, he plays Hayes Ellison, a charming lonesome horse trader who for no reason offers to protect a prostitute, Marigold (Abbey Lee) and a young boy.
There is truly a lot of things happening in Horizon: An American Saga—Chapter 1 that attention is also a must to follow the ongoings. Various themes are discussed from dreams, war, good vs evil, family, love and many more. It’s like Costner and co-writer Jon Baird tries their best to incorporate the entire encyclopaedia into one chapter but failing to pull off a coherent one. In other words, there isn’t much of an explanation of why and how certain things happened or ended in this way or another.
No doubt it’s an ambitious task on hand and clearly, Costner has the desire to tell an epic tale of sorts. Unfortunately, he could have concentrate simply on the battle between the Appalachian people and the settlers, the romance between Frances and Gephardt and the arrival of his character instead of delivering several inconsequential plot points into one single chapter. Because of it, it’s unlikely the audiences are going to be invested into the happenings of Hayes, Ellen or even Frances.
Still, the star power Costner has assembled here is no child’s play. Familiar faces like Will Patton, Michael Rooker, Danny Huston, Isabelle Fuhrman and Michael Angarano delivers as much screen magic as possible given their more or less limited screen time. The cinematography by J. Michael Muro is stunning and picturesque together with a subtle western score by John Debney.
It’s probably hard or unfair to judge an unfinished product liked Horizon despite Costner’s enthusiasm and courage. On hindsight, it works better as a drama series especially in today’s context. The ending boasts some teasing shots of what’s to come in Chapter 2, the supposedly land dealer baddie played by Giovanni Ribisi and more warfare between the hot headed settlers, Apache warriors and bounty hunters. Hopefully it’s not a case of too little too late.
Movie Rating:
(Fans of Costner’s past efforts like Dances with Wolves, Open Range will love it. The rest can ride off to other horizon)
Review by Linus Tee
SYNOPSIS: After moving to Bogotá for a chance at a better life, a young Korean man rises through the Colombian black market — risking peril for a shot at success.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Brotherhood. Betrayal. Revenge. These are the basic thematic themes of Bogota: City of the Lost starring the incredible boyish and popular Song Joong-ki.
The story has it that Kook-hee (Song), a young man who moves to Colombia, Bogota with his parents in search of a better life. Seeking the help of his dad’s so-called army buddy, Sergeant Park (Kwon Hae-hyo), Kook-hee begins his new life smuggling lingerie and parkas across police checkpoints and borders.
Did we just made a typo error? Lingerie and parkas? Isn’t it suppose to be drugs or money laundering or something along this line? Nope, Bogota: City of the Lost is indeed set in the Colombian black market smuggling scene. Anyway, together with his new friend, Soo-yeong (Lee Hee-joon), Kook-hee begins to climb up the corporate ladder aka bribing his way to the top aiming to open up a legit shopping mall one day and discarding the old ways of doing things.
Bogota: City of the Lost takes a long time to get things started and even then, things are too muddled to engage the audiences. We have totally no idea how the smuggling works in the end or made a profit given the constant bribing of armed guards and border police. The involvement of a local business rival contributes to more double crossing as if there isn’t enough drama between the Koreans themselves.
Not to mention, Kook-hee’s father who appears out of the sudden to rob his own son and the eventual fallout of Kook-hee and his associates. Director and co-writer Kim Seong-je should be praised for attempting something different but the execution, direction and pacing is totally not in sync with the layered narrative and excitement you expect from the movie.
While the movie is partly shot in Colombia, the entire experience feels more like a cheap flat telemovie. There are a couple of car chases, gun shots and explosions that are generically choreographed without much energy put in. Still, there are veteran actors liked Kwon Hae-hyo and Park Ji-hwan bringing some zest to the dour story.
Song Joong-ki is impressive nonetheless. The problem lies mainly with the story which fails to establish convincingly how his character rises to the top. Mostly, there isn’t much context and emotional added to it. The power struggles and betrayal seems to happen in a blink of an eye and things start to get a bit twisty in the final act. Sadly, there is a great movie lying somewhere but I guess it’s lost in Bogota.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
SYNOPSIS: When a drug heist swerves lethally out of control, a jaded cop fights his way through a corrupt city's criminal underworld to save a politician's son.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Whatever Gareth Evans does, everyone is going to compare it with The Raid and The Raid 2. Two action thrillers that are destined to be classics down the years. Other than Gangs of London, the Welsh born director hasn’t done anything on the scale of The Raid. With Havoc, he seems to be back or at least seems to be.
Set in an unnamed city that resembles a rundown New York or Chicago, a weathered homicide cop, Walker (Tom Hardy) and his rookie partner, Ellie (Jessie Mei Li) has to investigate a narcotics deal gone wrong. In short, Charlie, the son of a renowned politician, Lawrence (Forest Whitaker) is suspected to gun down the son of a Chinese mobster (played by a familiar face, Yeo Yann Yann) and she is thirsty for revenge. With Lawrence engaging his help to save his son, Walker not only must face the Chinese but also fellow corrupted cops led by Vincent (Timothy Olyphant).
There is not exactly a lot going on for the plot which is also written by Evans. The narrative here is straightforward and the characters introduced are mostly one dimensional and never make much impact on the overall story except Walker who of course has the most exposure. Come on it’s Tom Hardy. So as we learned, Walker has a six-year-old daughter that he desperately wants to see given its Christmas season and he is guilt-ridden over some dirty work involving Vincent as well. We guess Walker is trying to redeem himself by protecting Charlie.
But then audiences are here for the gang wars, menacing corrupt cops and anti-hero right? And I suppose every Raid fan is assembled here for the bloodshed right?
Well, you are in for a treat if you want to see how Evans on ten crates of Gatorade and Red Bull is like. The brutality and violence is insane and it makes John Wick looks like a G rated action thriller. The countless stuntmen disguising as the Chinese henchmen deserved an award for pulling off the bloodiest practical effects, hard knocks and falls. Trust Evans to casually pulls off a carnage warfare on a busy traffic stop, a nightclub and a hut in the middle of the woods. Now if you think John Woo’s classics, Hardboiled and A Better Tomorrow has an endless supply of bullet rounds, think again.
While it doesn’t top The Raid in terms of story and execution, not to mention the nauseously camera moves, Havoc is still a decent treat for those feeling exhausted from Netflix’s CGI heavy action comedies or thrillers. To be fair, Timothy Olyphant is kind of wasted in the whole affair. But our very own Sunny Pang has a fair part playing a greedy henchman. Bullets, holes and Hardy, at least Havoc truly lives up to its name.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
SYNOPSIS: Jealous of her best friend’s pregnancy, Lainy wears a fake baby bump... and accidentally meets the man of her dreams.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Comedians Amy Schumer and Adam Sandler teams up to bring you Kinda Pregnant, the kinda pointless, unfunny Netflix comedy of the month.
Schumer co-wrote and stars as Lainy, a primary school teacher who has been dreaming of starting her own family since young. Lainy thinks her current boyfriend, Dave (Damon Wayans Jr.) is about to propose. But no, he is proposing something else entirely. Meanwhile, Lainy’s best friend, Kate (Jillian Bell) is pregnant and Lainy is feeling a bit jealous, left out and even depressed about it. During a baby shopping trip with Kate, Lainy tries on a prosthetic belly and immediately feels good with all the attention she is getting from the people around her.
This leads to a friendship with an expecting mother, Megan (Brianne Hower) at a prenatal yoga class. And coincidentally, Lainy begins to develop a romantic relationship with Megan’s brother, Josh (Will Forte) as well.
If you love Schumer’s Trainwreck in which she also co-wrote, Kinda Pregnant is nothing like the latter. At least Trainwreck delivers the laughs and sentiments. Maybe because it is a Happy Madison production, we get a few juvenile laughs, mostly with Lainy falling flat on the floor or Megan’s knife-wielding toddler son stabbing Lainy’s fake belly. There is no insightful look into motherhood or any razor sharp commentary on modern woman lifestyle to save the day. It’s basically a tale of one selfish woman’s lie to satisfy herself.
Kinda Pregnant is fortunate to be filled with a few quirky characters, the boring husbands, Steve and Mark, the weird co-workers, Fallon and Shirley to pass the time. Best of all, there is Josh who is played affectionately by Will Forte. It shouldn’t be a rom-com in the first place but the story lights up a little whenever Josh and Lainy gets together. In actual fact, we rather watch a rom-com whereby Lainy is a single pregnant woman who has to navigate her way to stay together with Josh, the sweet man who drives a zamboni.
Director Tyler Spindel (The Out-Laws, The Wrong Missy) has no idea on how to make a meaningful, entertaining comedy as is the case with all of his movies. We know there are people out there who are not really big fans of Schumer’s stand-up gigs and Kinda Pregnant for sure is not her best screen work. We can only say she needs better collaborators for her next movie gig.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
Genre: Romance/Comedy
Director: Michael Morris
Cast: Renée Zellweger, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Leo Woodall, Emma Thompson, Gemma Jones, Jim Broadbent, Casper Knopf, Mila Jankovic, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant
Runtime: 2 hrs 5 mins
Rating: NC16 (Some Coarse Language and Sexual References)
Released By: UIP
Official Website:
Opening Day: 13 February 2025
Synopsis: Two-time Academy Award® winner Renée Zellweger returns to the role that established a romantic-comedy heroine for the ages, a woman whose inimitable approach to life and love redefined an entire film genre. Bridget Jones first blasted onto bookshelves in Helen Fielding’s literary phenomenon Bridget Jones’s Diary, which became a global bestseller and a blockbuster film. As a single career woman living in London, Bridget Jones not only introduced the world to her romantic adventures, but added “Singletons,” “Smug-Marrieds” and “f---wittage” into the global lexicon. Bridget’s ability to triumph despite adversity led her to finally marry top lawyer Mark Darcy and to become the mother of their baby boy. Happiness at last. But in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Bridget is alone once again, widowed four years ago, when Mark (Oscar® winner Colin Firth) was killed on a humanitarian mission in the Sudan. She’s now a single mother to 9-year-old Billy and 4-year-old Mabel, and is stuck in a state of emotional limbo, raising her children with help from her loyal friends and even her former lover, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant). Pressured by her Urban Family —Shazzer, Jude and Tom, her work colleague Miranda, her mother, and her gynecologist Dr. Rawlings (Oscar® winner Emma Thompson) — to forge a new path toward life and love, Bridget goes back to work and even tries out the dating apps, where she’s soon pursued by a dreamy and enthusiastic younger man (White Lotus’s Leo Woodall). Now juggling work, home and romance, Bridget grapples with the judgment of the perfect mums at school, worries about Billy as he struggles with the absence of his father, and engages in a series of awkward interactions with her son’s rational-to-a-fault science teacher (Oscar® nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor).
Movie Review:
It is a sign of the times that the latest ‘Bridget Jones’ sequel is going straight to streaming in the US; and indeed, for those who grew up with the franchise, it was more than two decades ago that Renee Zellweger first assumed the eponymous character as a 30-something single working woman in London. It has also been close to a decade since we were last reunited with Bridget Jones in ‘Bridget Jones’ Baby’, and for those who remember, that film left off with our heroine as the beaming new bride of her soul mate, Mark Darcy (Colin Firth).
In case you’re wondering why Mark doesn’t appear on the cover of the poster for ‘Bridget Jones: Mad about the Boy’, it is because the movie opens with Bridget as a widow, having lost Mark, a leading and world-respected human rights lawyer, in a bombing in Darfur four years ago. Still messy and disheveled as ever, Bridget is now a full-time mother to two beautiful kids – 10-year-old Billy (Casper Knopf), who has turned out serious like his father, and still sorely missing him; and precocious 6-year-old Mabel (Mila Jankovic), who is too young to remember much of her dad – while trying to make sense if there should be more to her life than just her kids.
Unlike the more screwball nature of the earlier two sequels, ‘Mad about the Boy’ takes on the anxieties, preoccupations and struggles of middle-age with just the right amount of seriousness and poignancy, while retaining just the right measure of levity. The former is established most certainly with Mark’s passing, whose absence is beautifully depicted in occasional but always heartstring-tugging ways; but also by the return of familiar faces, including best pals Shazzer (Sally Phillips), Tom (James Callis) and Jude (Shirley Henderson), parents Colin and Pamela (Jim Broadbent and Gemma Jones), and former boss-slash-paramour Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), who while still a relentless flirt and a sly reprobate, is consciously aware that he has aged into something ‘a fraction tragic’.
On the other hand, Bridget’s hijinks this time round are largely kept to her encounters with the titular boy, 29-year-old Roxster McDuff (Leo Woodall), who rescues her from an ill-fated attempt to climb a tree in Hampstead Heath when Mabel is stuck on a branch. It is a dreamy, and occasionally steamy, fling no doubt, but kudos to the writers for not taking the ‘tragic widow seeking sexual awakening’ (that’s what her friends tag her page on Tinder as) too far; instead, it is a lesson for Bridget in acknowledging where she is at this point in her life, and therefore what truly matters.
What it does though is to open her eyes and mind to the possibility of opening her life to someone new, whom in this case happens to be Billy’s somewhat awkwardly uptight science teacher Mr Walliker (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Here, the meet-cutes with Mr Walliker are less dreamy and also less steamy, but more grounded in a steady buildup of chemistry between the couple – and to be fair, Ejiofor more than holds his own in his first rom-com/ romantic role being effortlessly charming in his own way. Oh yes, it is no secret that Bridget will have a happily-ever-after ending with Mr Walliker, but you’ll find that the journey to that destination is well-earned.
It is to director Michael Morris’ credit that ‘Mad about the Boy’ is probably one of our favourite ‘Bridget Jones’ sequels. Part of it is certainly because of nostalgia for a character whom those of a certain age bracket have grown up with; but more importantly, it is an affecting character study of what it means to embrace middle-age, as well as the attendant grief and loss that just hits harder when you lose not just a husband (or wife) but a companion for life. It is also to Zellweger’s credit that she remains as endearing and eccentric as ever, but this time with a greater deal of empathy than before, representing those in their 40s and 50s who have been through more of life’s vicissitudes.
Whether we will be reunited again with Bridget and with Zellweger remains to be seen, but if this is how the makers of the franchise decide to seal our memory of the character, it is as good a finale as it gets. Like we said at the beginning, it is a sign of the times that ‘Mad about the Boy’ is turning up on streaming in the US; but we suspect, whether you’re watching this on your couch or on a seat in a darkened cinema hall, the laughs, tears and affections are just as rewarding.
Movie Rating:
(Less screwball and more reflective, and dare we say intimate, this portrait of middle-aged Bridget is surprisingly poignant and heartfelt)
Review by Gabriel Chong
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INTERVIEW WITH THE CAST AND CREW OF DARK NUNSPosted on 09 Feb 2025 |
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