I have not watch Monsters University yet
maybe after I wacthed MU then my vote goes to MU as well haha

The Croods (2013) Addendum

For my original review, please goto The Croods Review

This is now release on bluray and would like to add, it is probably one of my favorites CGI animation of the year. The other being Monster University (2013). Frankly, I like this a bit more because it is an original. Having said that, Monster University has a dash more... heart!!

Imaginative story telling. Good taking on the Neanderthal (Grug) vs Cro Magnon (Guy). I'm sure some would even argue that Grug is Cro Magnon and Guy is modern man, but the point is moot. Because you don't have to be specific to enjoy this movie...

But the splitting of the supercontinent Pangaea thing, is pushing it because the separation happen 200 million years ago and modern man only existed... again never mind. Not important to enjoy the movie.

So in short ENJOY the movie

PQ is BREATHTAKING.
AQ is really good

My Added Two Sen

Tremors II: Aftershocks (1996)

Apparently, Kevin Bacon's character got married and wasn't interested in a get together for this...

Fred Ward's character is the lead and Christopher Gartin's character makes a poor replacement for Valentine McKee...

This time, Earl Bassett figures out a way to kill Graboids.

Buy mounting dynamites to RC car and having Graboids swallow them and then kaboom!!!!

Michael Gross is also back and am not sure I care for the "evolving" Graboids...

My Two Sen

Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001)

The more things change, the more things remain the same.

This is definitely true with this movie.

It take place again in the little town, Perfection.

Michael Gross is now the lead!!

This time with sidekick Shawn Christian.

The old casts from the first movie, returns (with the exception of Victor Wong & Kevin Bacon & Fred Ward...)

Movie is okay, but again not quite sure about the evolution part again...

My Two Sen

Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004)

This is more of a prequel rather then a sequel and I like it!!

The cast consist of many ethic group and each one gets their time to shine!!

Michael Gross is back to lead again, playing the great grand father of his previous role!!!

Is actually fun again and not bad.

Give this a spin if you have not already on a lazy Sunday afternoon why don't cha...

My Two Sen

Psycho II (1983)

Sometimes being a hit, is a curse.

For Psycho, the curse it two folds...

Anthony Perkins is pigeon hole to the Norman Bats character...

And any sequel is... doom... still born even.

If you notice the year this movie was release 23 years after the original...

The writers used that as the time Norman Bates was locked up in a Mental Asylum... and after 22 years... the doctors decided the Norman is sane...

They also managed to persuade Vera Miles to reprise he role as Lila Loomis (the sister of the victim in the original movie).

And that is where the intrigue of this movie ends...

Because Alfred Hitchcock so masterfully made the first the is absolutely not way anyone can equal... let alone surpass his in an sequels...

They start the movie but cutting in the shower scene from the first, trying to remind the audience what Norman did...

And then any chance they get, they re-shoot all the good bits in the original but with the new characters....

I need to permanent save this line, the more things change, the more things remain the same. Even the twist at the end...

As I had said, doom even at the beginning...

Universal had alot of hopes for this movie... and based on the strength of the original, this movie made USD 35 million (it cost them USD 5 million to make) and have to add, this movie you would watch and just as soon forget...

It pales in comparison to the original...

So as I had stated above, cursed...

And then Universal went ahead and made 3,4,5...

My Two Sen.

The Thief of Bagdad (1924)

This is really REALLY old movie. Not only is it black and white, it is also silent!!

Quite dedicatedly restore and the background orchestration recorded!!

This has all the elements of an Arabian night story.

A beautiful princess and cheek and handsome rouge thief who has the audacity to dream he could win the princess!! Flying carpet, magic apples dangerous quest!!

Also very interesting to see, the transition from traditional theater to cinema, which Douglas Fairbanks, whose movements were exaggerated trying to make sure the person at the back of the cinema hall can see that he is happy, sad etc...

If you are into silent movies, give this a go!!

Bring on Nosferatu!!

My Two Sen

Virtuosity (1995)

Before The Matrix (1999), before CGI was the goto technology for Special Effect, there was this little gem...

It introduces Russell Crowe to people outside of Australia and also the concept of virtual reality to the general public!!

Looking at it now... the story is still passable with some decent CGI effects!!

Densel it seem always plays the decent guy who is caught in a complex situation...

Also remember this is the early days of email adoption, so things that we take for granted now, was actually high tech then!!

This beats tech movies from the same period Sandra Bullock's The Net (1995), Angelina Jolie's Hackers (1995) and gosh even the much later Ryan Phillippe's Antitrust (2001) out of the water.

Please note this is R Rated so there are some... skin.

My Two Sen

Prisoners (2013)

Okay, if you want BIG EXPLOSION, DAZZLING SPECIAL EFFECT and GIANT ROBOT/MONSTERS/ALIENS/SPACE CRAFT... Sorry bud/budette, this is the wrong movie for you...

If you are looking for a good drama/suspense movie, well, look no further!!

This one has, Hugh Jackman (What??? no claws????!), Jake Gyllenhaal (I want to be the lead. I WANT TO BE THE LEAD) & Terrence Howard (I would have been Iron Man 2 & 3 if only I had fitted in the War Machine armour... ). It also has Viola Davis & Maria Bello whom I feel is WAY under used...

Story, well written.
Cast, very good. (Jake Gyllenhaal is a method actor... Still think he forces his character onto people... I don't know...)
Direction... some minor flaw... very VERY minor...

The gem for me in this movie would be Ms Melissa Leo!! Very well done!!!

The ending is NOT original, but at this day and age, I believe it would probably surprise some people...

With the movie drought we are currently having, this is really a good offering!

My Two Sen

This post has been edited by Mov_freak: Sep 22 2013, 09:51 PM

Mov_freak, do you enjoy movies like Un Chien Andalou (1929), El Topo (1979), Begotten (1990) or similar movie of more popular like Eraserhead (1977), could you share your thoughts on them?

Hi Gruntz99. Wow, you really REALLY like the offbeat, unusual and existential materials!!! Alas, I do not believe I have had the chance to go through the movies you had stated. I'm currently retiring my DVD collection (I LITERALLY have to many DVD to retire...) with HD copies and are going through the HD copies as I get them. Having said that, I recently bought

The Lost World [DVD] (Restored Edition) (1925)

Keeping Score: Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring [Blu-ray] (2013)

So, I believe our preference are actually quite different. I'm more into "popular movies" rather then "existential movies".

The closest I came to the genre of material you like would be The Draughtsman's Contract [Blu-ray]. It is full of symbolism and is beautifully shot, and have to add, I'm afraid that movie was WAY TOO high brow for me... My Review

Other I have come in contact with, which are more unusual are Arabian Nights [Blu-ray] & Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom [Blu-ray]. I did not put any review for these two movie because frankly, I would not even know where to begin!! (I was actually VERY appalled by Salo's depiction of human most... based behavior...)

May I point to QuickFire. He seems to enjoy the type of movies you enjoy (existential). Please, please let me know if you have any other question. It is refreshing to know there are people in Malaysia with more unique preference in movies!!

Cheers

This post has been edited by Mov_freak: Sep 24 2013, 03:20 PM

Now You See Me (2013)


Sometimes a movie comes out with very little hype and marketing and it slips through our radar. Now You See Me is one such movie. Before I saw the DVD being displayed on the 'New Releases' shelf I have not known that this movie even existed. What's more surprising is that Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine are in it. I usually like shows that have either of them in it but this one has both of them and I did not even know about it.

Now You See Me (NYSM) is directed by Louis Leterrier and the only shows by this director that I have seen are : The Transporter (2002) and Clash of The Titans (2010). I hated Clash of The Titans but The Transporter was ok so I gave this movie the benefit of the doubt.

NYSM is about a group of 4 street magicians being recruited by a mysterious figure to form a group calling themselves the 4 Horsemen. The group comprises of J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson) and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco). In their opening show in Las Vegas, the 4 Horsemen ended their show by 'robbing' a bank all the way over in Paris. They seemingly transported an account holder of the bank from Las Vegas to the bank vault and then proceeded to suck up all the money there and showered the notes all over the audiences at the show.

When the money is found to be really missing, FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) is assigned to the case but he has French Interpol agent Alma Dray (Melanie Laurent) tagging along. Having no solid proof that the 4 Horsemen actually stole the money, Dylan had to let them go. Dylan then sought the help of Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) to expose the Horsemen. Thaddeus used to be a magician but has since devoted his time to exposing the tricks employed by magicians and earns his living that way.

As Thaddeus and Rhodes investigate, Thaddeus is approached by Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine) who sponsors the 4 Horsemen, telling Thaddeus to back off as he does not want his investment into the 4 Horsemen to go down the drain. During the 4 Horsemen's second show however, Tressler himself was betrayed when the Horsemen distributed about $140 million from Tressler's bank account to the member of the audience that attended the show. Furious, Tressler offers Thaddeus money to expose the Horsemen in their next performance.

As the case gets more and more twisted, Rhodes surmised that there must be a fifth horseman that is still unexposed as the 4 seems to be always a step ahead of the authorities. The question is who is this fifth horseman and why are they taking the money only to give it away?

The story moves at a fast pace and offers twists and turns throughout. This may confuse some viewers but it you can follow the story, it's pretty entertaining. The casts all give out decent performances and the set pieces are good. Although the story is ok, it leaves out a lot on the character development. After a brief intro at the start of the show, we are not told much else about the 4 Horsemen. I am of the opinion that the writers wasted some plot points when they told us that Henley and Atlas were formerly a team and may even be lovers at one point only to go their different ways later but did not further explore the topic.

Overall a decent movie with decent entertainment value although lacking the finer plot points to make this a great movie.

Rating : 3 out of 5 stars.

Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon (2013)

Tsui Hark is back!!!

And I'm appreciative!

Extravagant production.

Chang'an, (the capital Tang Dynasty) is very IMPRESSIVE. The Tang Dynasty was known for it's "openness" to foreign influence. So much so, Buddhism flourish in China during this period. (In the movie, we can also see the Persians had their own "quarters" in Chang'an). The Tang's Naval was quite renown during it's time and I believe Tsui Hark was able to capture that here.

Okay. I've "lost" track of the thespians in the East of forgive my ignorance.

Mark Chao is very convincing as Detective Dee. William Feng plays Zhenjin, (think Dr Watson to Sherlock Holmes)!! (Mr Tsui Hark has the audacity to go there, and it works.)

Chen Kun plays Yuchi (Chief Commissioner of the Supreme Court) who is both adversary and partners in crime with Detective Dee!!

Okay, Okay, Angela Baby is in there somewhere...

Throw in impressive kung fu (wire works which is the best I have seen), bewitchment through... "Asian" alchemy, "mutant" human and sea creature, this movie is mucho addictive!!!

More.

MORE!!!

Bring on another remake of, Zu, Warriors from the Magic Mountain!!!

My Two Sen

This post has been edited by Mov_freak: Sep 30 2013, 01:44 PM

Love Battlefield (2004)

Thought it was another generic modern HK romance crap. But i was wrong, it's action packed with romance and humanity. Even the bad guy also show believable brotherhood, love and humanity. One moment you feel like hating the bad guy, one moment you kinda root for them. Though some of the plot didn't make sense due to too much coincidence, but overall the director did a good job. Eason Chan must be one of underrated popstar-actor hybrid. He showed range of talent in this film.

Working Class (1985)
Directed by the legendary Tsui Hark, very good comedy about working class people. Typical 80's HK comedy. I know nothing about the cast except for young Tsui Hark and beautiful then-18 years old Joey Wong.

Space Battleship Yamato (2010)


Japanese anime series. Some have very good storylines but they all share one common attribute that makes watching them quite a pain in the you-know-where. Them Japs just love to stall. If you've watched 'Dragon Ball' anime, then you know what I'm talking about. One freaking battle between Goku and whatever nemesis he is facing can stretch to 6 or more episodes. Tiring! All Japanese anime series suffer this same syndrome to varying degrees.

I like to watch Japanese anime whenever I get the chance. When I was a young boy, I tried to catch episodes of Robotech on TV but they keep jumbling up the episodes. There were of course series like Transformers and Voltron, Defender of the Universe which explains why I liked Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim.

So what's with this Space Battleship Yamato then? Well the title is for a live action Japanese science fiction movie based on an old anime series of the same name. How old, you ask? Well, the Uchu Senkan Yamato anime series pre-dates even the first Mobile Suit Gundam series. It goes back all the way to 1974.

The live action movie in 2010 summarizes the 26-episode anime series into a little more than 2 hours. Perfect for those who wants to know the story but have no time to go through the series. The live action movie clocking in at 131 minutes has all the important plot lines and stands very well on its own.

Space Battleship Yamato tells the story of one Susumu Kodai (Takuya Kimura), who is a young retired ace fighter pilot who has lost faith in earth's (read Japan) space military force. His brother Mamoru Kodai (Shinichi Tsutsumi) had sacrificed his life and his battle ship to save Captain Okita's ship during a doomed battle off Mars. Earth's fleet is hopelessly outclassed by the Gamilas space invader's fleet and the surface has been rendered uninhabitable by the Gamilas' radioactive meteor bombs. Humanity, retreating deep underground, is facing extinction.

One fine day, Susumu is almost hit by a falling space object when he is scavenging for scraps on the surface. The impact knocks his face mask off but he miraculously survives when Captian Okita's ship comes by. After retrieving Susumu and the fallen object, they soon learn that Susumu has suffered no radiation exposure at all. The object is found to contain schematics to a new FTL (faster than light) engine plus a map to a distant planet called Iskandar.

Captain Okita (Tsutomu Yamazaki) believes that Iskandar holds the key to humanity's continual survival and thus requests to helm earth's last space battleship, the Yamato to go on a journey to Iskandar. When he request is granted, Captian Okita calls for volunteers to go on the mission and Susumu decides to re-enlist.

Telling the world that Yamato and her crew is going to Iskandar to retrive an anti-radition device to help clean the earth's surface, the Yamato takes off and heads off to space but what they did not know is that the anti-radiation device is merely based on a hunch Captian Okita has. Will the Yamato succeed? Will earth be saved?

Space Battleship Yamato is quite enjoyable. The action scenes are good, the special effects are good and the story is tight. For those of you that have watched the new Battlestar Galactica series, you will find that Space Battleship Yamato has a similar style with its depiction of space battles and fighter movements in space.

The actors all gave good performances and the movie really captures the feel of the anime. There's also eye candy in the form of Meisa Kuroki playing Yuki Mori, Susumu's love interest. If you like anime, you should give this a go. It's directed by Takashi Yamazaki and produced on a paltry budget of $23.9 million. Compared to the massive budget most Hollywood blockbusters have, it seems that Hollywood needs to take a page from the Japanese on how to beef up a story rather than blowing all your money on special effects but forgetting about story and characters.



Rating : 3 out of 5 stars.

honestly i think andy lau is good... and my korean addict is dropping down since kim bum acting is like not-so-great in period

Yes, Andy Lau is good. I believe that is to be (at least as far as Tsui Hark is concern) Detective Dee "last" case. With Young Detective Dee, sequels can be in great number! Since it is only his "first" case!!

Kim Bum, I believe will not be in episode two...

I still like the actor who role as priestess or deer god or whatever, cute

Red State (2011) - Good movie.... Although is not a true story, but the cult killings really did happened in America before...

Premium Rush (2012) - Very good ride....

Europa Report (2013)

Wow...impressively made movie. Very atmospheric and believable sequence of events for the most parts.

This movie is basically a NASA mockumentary, about a group of astronauts who were sent to Europa (jupiter's moon).
The story is told through spaceships and spacesuit cameras but man...it works so well.
And the ominous music it uses during certain scenes are great.

This is definitely one of the better space movies I've watched.
Highly recommended.

I would suggest against watching this if you're claustrophobic though.

This post has been edited by ray148: Oct 1 2013, 07:29 PM