How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)

Well, this turns out to be a difficult movie for me to review...

No no, do not misunderstand, this movie is good, it is just that the story went to and unexpected direction for me and the outcome...

Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

We revisit the village Berk and life is good.

Everyone prospering, human and dragons are co-existing, but hark, our male lead it no where to be found...

The movie really starts with Astrid finding Hiccup and he is exploring far and wide, mapping everything.

Well, I am not going to give you a blow by blow of the movie, the animation is great, scored grand and the story... dark!

And this goes back to my original difficulty.

Alright, story is not a rehash of the first and expended the universe of HTTYD for sure but for the better? I don't know...

I reserve the right to make that call when the third movie is available.

In the mean time, go enjoy the movie, just because I have reservation about it, doesn't mean you cannot enjoy it!!

My Two Sen

X-Men : Days of Future Past (2014)

Directed by : Bryan Singer

Cast : Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen


If you're a fan of the X-Men, then this is one movie not to be missed. If you enjoyed X-Men : First Class, then this movie is not to be missed. I must say that X-Men : Days of Future Past (DOFP) is one of the finest in the X-Men franchise, if not the best so far.

There is one caveat though : to be able to thoroughly understand this movie you will need to be able to remember the main plots of all the X-Men movie that came before. If anything, you would at least need to have seen X-Men : First Class as this could be positioned as the direct sequel to that movie.

DOFP starts out in the future and as most movie goes, the future is not a good place to be living in. Gigantic robots called the Sentinels are hunting down mutants all over the world and they are winning. Apart from wiping out the mutants, these Sentinels are now even wiping out humans that are potential parents or grand parents to mutants and any humans that are sympathising with the mutants. Talk about a paranoia gone wrong! Thus is it with the future world in DOFP.

Fighting a losing battle, a small group of mutants led by Bobby aka Iceman have found a way to evade the mercilessly efficient Sentinels. Whenever the Sentinels find out where they are hiding, Kitty Pride (Ellen Page) will begin to send the mind of Bishop several days into the past, into a younger Bishop's body to warn the group. Thus the group will then evacuate and find a new hideout in the past thus managing to stay one step ahead of the Sentinels. One thing is certain is that whenever the Sentinels and mutants clash, the Sentinels will win the fight. Problem is the Sentinels will always find out where they are hiding. It's all just a matter of time.

The next we see of Bobby's group, we see that they have joined with Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (Ian McKellen) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). Professor X asks how far into the past can Kitty Pride project an individual's mind. Kitty replies that she could manage to go back a couple of weeks before the individual's mind will suffer irreparable damage. Wolverine then asks what if the mind can repair itself as fast as it is damaged, would she be able to send it way, way back. Kitty says it was possible. Professor X requests that Wolverine be sent back 50 years into the past to the 1970's to prevent the murder of one Bolivar Trask, the inventor of the Sentinels by none other than Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence). This is because the murder will cause Mystique to be captured and the study of her DNA and mutant ability will enable the Sentinels to evolve to a point where they will be able to adapt to any attack and cause the future to become so bleak.

Thus begins the journey where Wolverine's mind travels to the past to his younger self to warn and enlist the help of the young Charles Xavier(James McAvoy) and Eric Lehnsherr(Michael Fassbender) to avert the coming apocalypse.

DOFP does not have a lot of mutant vs mutant or mutant vs Sentinels action scenes. What it does have is a very tight plot and good pacing throughout. Lots of dialogue but they are the meat and potatoes of the movie so if you are one to skip talky parts and yearn for special effects laden action scenes, then this movie is not for you. What began in X-Men : First Class is continued here in DFOP where we see 2 friends fighting for the same cause but are ripped apart by different ideals. They must now work together and save the world from its own future.

Fans of X-Men rejoice because after this movie, all of the mistakes made in the previous X-Men movies are erased and all is set well again in the X-Men universe.

Rating : 3.5 out of 5 stars

No - 2012 Oscar nominated foreign movie

Not a big fan of political movies, they tend to exaggerate themes and paints the protagonist larger than life. A lot of times they "Oscar-bait" it with powerhouse actors to provide some "weight". Here is an honest film that does not rely on star power and hollywood gloss to make an effective film.
The movie starts with Gael Garcia Bernal and his partner peddling a sales pitch sugar coated with advertising lingo to their unsuspecting sucker clients. He got himself into engineering ad campaigns that battle it out on TV for the fate of Argentina. You can easily do a satirical comedy out of it, but here the film takes an earnest approach to the backdoor shenanigans. Those ads are very cheesy and crude on their messaging. The fun is seeing how the 2 political camps retaliate each other. Threats and intimidation tactics escalate as the endgame draws near. The film adopts a lo-fi "feel" to accurately portray the late 80's mood which stylistically is refreshing and truthful.
A nice original film worth watching.

This post has been edited by 6so: Jun 22 2014, 01:02 PM

Cheap Thrills - A hidden gem

Thoroughly enjoy this unassuming dark comedy. It does not have any recognizable cast except for David Koechner. Fundamentally, it test the theory of how easy to break a man's spirit and moral standpoint in the span of one night. A down on luck high moral dude pair with a questionable slacker who compete to "Jackass" each other for money. It starts with petty pranks and spirals down to a very dark place of what you willing to do for money. There are a few unpredictable twists just kept you wanting to watch the next funny act or down right disturbing stuff.
Don't be put off by the low budget b-movie look.

This post has been edited by 6so: Jun 25 2014, 12:39 PM

Guys, I just watched Afflicted...And boy am I impressed. Seeing as this is their debut in film making, Derek Lee and Clif Prowse really pulled off something amazing here. It really makes the general audience feel as though they could make a movie out of footage using a couple of DSLRs on their occasional vacation trip. Having watched similar films like Quarantine/Cloverfield where the dark and fast-paced scenes were so confusing and taxing to follow, I expected the same from Afflicted.But my my, the camera work and effects are really top class throughout the film.

Thumbs-up:
+ Fantastic camera work
+ Realistic visual effects
+ Effective horror delivery

Thumbs-down:
- Writing could use some polishing

*Go watch this WITHOUT reading the film description and online reviews beforehand.*

The Raid 2
Not as charming as the first movie, but they do try to expand the movie from the story's front and ass kicking factor. Let's not pretend we watch Iko Uwais for his acting chops, somehow the director borrows one too many plot cliches to shoehorn into a whopping two and half hour flick. Unnecessary plot and rudimentary gangsters provide distractions to the real reason for watching the movie. One of the big problems for long fisticuff sequence is it can be a chore to watch when you have no attachment to character's motivation. While the choreography is excellent those baddies are just lame. Realistically that baseball dude and hammer girl won't fly in a real fight, it's way too "staged". Now that muddy fight fest in the prison is something to behold from a visual standpoint. The car chase+fight scene will have you collecting your jaw from the floor in no time. The final fight in the kitchen is pretty entertaining, but still lacking to the epic Mad Dog's throwdown in the first movie. By today's standard the movie still a pretty remarkable achievement just that it's not as bombastic and memorable as the first movie.

This post has been edited by 6so: Jun 22 2014, 02:29 PM

haha now you made me not 2 watch raid 2 like the longer version of hard boiled and i actually got bored half way watching hard boiled because its just way 2 long 4 my liking

The Raid 2.

This was kind of disappointing. The first was much better, much more propulsive and pure in its intentions. The sequel attempts to infuse a crime epic into its story, which isn't half bad actually, but gets woefully sidetracked whenever a fight breaks out. Which is quite confounding really, because I watched this precisely for the fights, and yet the fights really detract from the story, so what you're left with is a half baked crime saga with ferocious fight scenes that do not serve the story well. It doesn't help that the fights, while impressively choreographed, seem much less inventive than the first. You also gotta miss the single location from the first movie. Oh and at 2.5 hours this is truly overlong.

Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler)

Live action ver. of the popular manga/anime.

I've never read/watched the manga/anime before, but I roughly know its synopsis.
If you're avid fan of this series, I would suggest it would be the best to stay off this live action ver. 'cause it's rather disappointing. Story strayed too far away from the original plot. More like a cosplay movie to me (the costume, make-up, setting are nicely done though).

It's a great mistake where the protagonist Ciel's sex is changed to female (where in the original story Ciel is a male). Plain boring for the 1st half of the show... Some action scenes after that... Acting feels abit quite forceful...Unnatural... :/

Quite shocking in the end that it turned out to be dark romance story... (***There is no such thing happened in the original story). Probably it's made to please some teenage girls (sorta twilight = =)

It seems there's gonna be sequel movie for this...Oh no... Not the worst adaption I've seen (Dragonball was plain horrible), but it's still can be watched if you really got nothing else to do.

3/10

Spritually The Raid 2 is kinda like SPL2.
You still can enjoy it by skipping to the pow pow scenes.

I’m a huge fan of Jonathan Glazer. Back in late 90’s and early 2k, top shelf TV commercial works were dominated by the likes of David Fincher, Tarsem Singh and Jonathan Glazer. They have consistently made groundbreaking visual wizardry which until today still being copied. His Levi’s and Guiness ads still stood the test of time. He also directed Jamiroquai’s “Virtual Insanity” and UNKLE’s “Rabbit in your headlight” music video. His debut “Sexy Beast” managed to pull Ben Kingsley out from his “straight to dvd” career with the explosive Don Logan performance. While “Birth” tanked at the boxoffice, it’s still a non-conventional Hollywood fare with reasonable good following around the critic circle. His new movie starring Scarlett Johansson as an alien who pick-up random dudes on the street. It does sound like a porno movie plot but it does a full Kubrickian existential type of movie with it. His inventive visual flair truly refreshing in today’s “a copy of a copy of a copy” movie experience. Scarlett Johansson delivers a brave performance, which requires her to narrate the movie with very little dialogue and to a degree put herself in uncomfortable scenes.
There’s no denying not everyone will appreciate this type of movie. If you stick through the slow burn narration, you will be rewarded with an original piece of movie experience. Imagine watching a very good David Lynch type of movie.

This post has been edited by 6so: Jun 25 2014, 07:56 PM

Insidious (2010 & 2013)

I think it is one of the best horror/thriller I've ever watched. I really love the story because it is unique.

10/10

haha tarsem singh...i heard of this name some where which i forgot

anyway did some search and found out his best work ever is this that won the MTV VMA in 1991



this fellow should be the true predecessor 4 the new big indian like m night shyamalan

This post has been edited by skylinelover: Jun 25 2014, 09:21 PM

His best ad is the Nike all star spot that got him the legendary TVC film director status. It's the first time for nike to spend that much money on football and it became an annual practice of having an all star theme ads.

His first two movies show a lot of potential. The cell and The fall.

He poured every single cent he had into The Fall. After that movie failed at box office, he went back to do tons of rudimentary commercial stuff to make up the losses. He did 2 abysmal movie - The Immortal & Mirror,Mirror. While the story is not the high point, his art direction still distinctive over other working directors. Hope he won't typecast as "style over substance" type of feature film director.
PS: He also a classmate of Michael Bay.

This post has been edited by 6so: Jun 26 2014, 10:48 AM

haha i see...yeah i remember watching this classic ad way back in primary school before

This post has been edited by skylinelover: Jun 26 2014, 11:22 AM

There's Something About Mary (1998)

This is the movie that propelled Cameron Diaz into the superstar limelight. It's a romantic gross-out comedy that stars Diaz, Ben Stiller and a host of other. If you haven't already watched the movie then I would recommend you to see it if you don't mind jokes/gags that are a bit on the crude side and heavy with sexual innuendos.

Although it is somewhat old movie it has aged quite well. The jokes are still relevant and funny and great for a lazy afternoon. The movie tells the story of Ted (Stiller) who has been pining for his high school sweetheart Mary (Diaz) even though it has been 13 years since their first, very brief and last date that ended in somewhat of a disaster. After the incident Mary moved away and contact was lost. Still unable to let go Ted decides to hire a private investigator to find Mary to try and re-establish contact but problem crops up when the PI falls for Mary after locating her. What follows is a series of hilarious events as Ted and the PI both tries to win Mary's heart. As the battle intensifies, it is revealed that the two are not the only ones smitten by Mary.

Rating : 3 out of 5 stars.

The LEGO Movie (2014)

LEGO bricks. I dare say everyone has played with LEGO at one time or another and there's only one thing that you need while playing with LEGO and that's your imagination. The LEGO movie stays true to that. It's imaginative, it's funny and it's LEGO through and through in both body and spirit.

The LEGO Movie is directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett and Morgan Freeman lend their voices.

You've seen this movie a thousand times before but not like this. This is the tale of the hero's journey told in LEGO style and it's thoroughly enjoyable. Emmet (Chris Pratt) is your very average LEGO joe construction worker that lives in a big city not unlike New York or Chicago. He tries to fit in and 'follow instructions' and he's so good at it that nobody even notices him. Emmet's life takes a drastic change when he comes across Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) and inadvertently finds the 'Resistance Piece' of an old prophecy. Well, not that old actually but if you take the time period in LEGO years... well, you get my drift.

Taken into custody by the evil President Business' minions, Emmet is interrogated by Bad Cop (Liam Neeson) before he is broken out by Wyldstyle and taken to meet Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman) the blind wizard who is the leader of the Masterbuilders who form the resistance group to Lord Business. Vitruvius tells Emmet that he's 'The Special' of the prophecy who would lead them to defeat Lord Business. Problem is Emmet is really just your regular LEGO guy and the only outstanding thing about him is that he is a regular guy through and through and cannot build anything without instructions.

The LEGO Movie has tons of references and pokes fun at other movies and there's a host of guest stars in it. Part of the fun is trying to spot all these references. Batman is one of the major characters in the movie and there's Superman and Wonder Woman guest starring. Star Wars also makes an appearance and there's references to Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter too.

If you are young at heart or have children or enjoyed playing LEGO at one time or another or is a movie buff or likes comedy or spoofs, you should go see this movie. Why are you still reading this? Go see the movie already!

Rating : 3.5 out of 5 stars

Snowpiercer

This is how a blockbuster movie done right. Thoughtful, equal balance of action and drama. Bong Joon-ho to date the only South Korea film director who manages to do a US movie retaining his unique vision and voice. His filmography showcases his ability to switch from profound indie fare to commercial big films with little effort. Using a sci-fi premise to tell the story of class struggle mirroring our "1%" world. Foretelling a revolt from the have nots pressing forward to regain their freedom on a train that circling a fictional dead world. Highly recommended. Chris Evan gave a compelling rebel leader performance that quite unlike his "ra-ra" Steve Rogers role in Marvel movies. Song Kang Ho does hold his own against the impressive ensemble cast. Tilda Swinton seems to have a fun time playing the kooky power hungry mayor. Ed Harris also did well in his antagonist role.

This post has been edited by 6so: Jun 28 2014, 11:14 AM

300: Rise of an Empire (2014)

I confess.

I have never went on the record to say that I like 300 (2006)...

The issue is the brutality. They made brutality into "art". They beautified the killing scenes and I do not agree with that.

So when they announced they were making "Part Deux"... I was not expecting much...

Just finished watching it and all I can say is, do people even remember The 300 Spartans (1962)?

That movie is 52yo and from a story point of view, still run rings around this movie!!?!

Style over substance ladies and gentlemen. Style over substance!!!

From casting (not sure if Sullivan Stapleton is the best choice for Themistocles), why is Eva Green's character Artemisia even here? And the fact that Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) led the Spartan retaliation... My goodness, do they even know the source material (eg history)????!? (In Sparta, women are basically a baby factory, full stop...)

History about this matter is pretty straight forward, Athens (which had the best Navy force in Greece) and the rest of Greece met Persia at the sea, forcing the Persian army to try to enter Greece through Thermopylae (Hot Gates) where the Spartan met them.

So having said that, 300 (2006) historically is actually more accurate, whereas this movie...

This is based on the comic Xerxes and surprise surprise, you DON'T see alot of HIM!!!?!

Okay, credit where credit is due, the way the Greeks did sea battle, is actually by the book (eg according to history books), and have to add, apart from that...

I am sorry, I think this is a very poor attempt at a movie and have to add, I actually approached the movie with very low expectation, even then I truly and thoroughly disappointed!!

My Two Sen

This post has been edited by Mov_freak: Jun 28 2014, 12:51 PM

Never Let Me Go
This movie slip through my attention until recently was given as a gift from a friend abroad. A touching love story that’s very sincere and emotional. It’s directed by Mark Romanek, an acclaim music video director behind many timeless MVs. The premise takes place in an alternate world where special people are bred as body organ replacement. They are raised in a boarding school until they are mature for harvesting. It’s not an original idea, but the source material decide to focus on the lives of three subjects rather than the science behind it. We follow them coming to terms of how they would face their ill purpose in life. Three close friends discover each other until love triangle drove them apart. As they resign to their fate, the two leads rekindle their relationship as time is not on their side.
A very well made film with strong performance from Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield. While MR’s debut One Hour Photo gives a breath of fresh air to psychology thriller genre, Never Let Me Go brought some nuance treatment to an old subject matter.
A great movie to get your significant other occupied for 2 hours as you can have some peaceful down time for World Cup.