The Act of Killing - Documentary
One of the most important documentaries in the last 10 years. A great documentary is not about educating or highlighting an issue or topic, it's about taking an agenda free stance behind the subject it trying to portray, from there on you as a viewer will make your own conclusion. The premise is about death squad members recounting their participation in eliminating communist threat that has similarity to our own history. The genius of this documentary is getting the larger than life death squad members re-enacting the atrocity of genocide in a "musical-like act" that is contradicting the nature of their inhumanity acts. As things getting more and more f$%ed up,a gleam of remorse start to exhibit itself on one of the character.A truly powerful and confounding character study.

As the light goes out.

Another neither here nor there HK movie.Enjoy the overall idea but not so with sloppy pacing and convoluted plot-lines.Also when you are watching a movie about firefighter,you expect to see them literally fights fire lorr! Appreciate the attempt to give more drama scenes to flesh out characters but it fails to recognize that action sequence in on the other side of the same coin.The rescue sequence is so poorly choreographed as I'm having difficulty identifying who is doing what with over-edit shaky cam.The only redeeming factor is the high production value,unfortunately held back by messy multiple plot-lines that does not hold the movie well.

Johnnie To's Lifeline still the benchmark for firefighter movie IMO.

Saw an interview with the director on youtube,he has the option to follow up with perspective from the victim's side.He was contemplating whether to revisit or not.

Big Bad Wolves
A revenge torture porn flick that does not play it straight to the conventional thriller mold.Fantastic dialogues laden with very dark humour scenes.Although the plot may have similarity to The Prisoner which took itself seriously,BBW has a lighter approach and a lot more easier to watch.Imagine Johnnie To bringing his A game to the table.
Tarantino was raving about this movie as one of the best 2013 release.
Highly recommended.

The Midnight After

Suppose can call this as HK answer to what Terry Gilliam or the younger Takashi Miike type of movie.If you dig Brazil or Visitor Q there's a possibility you will like this movie.
Basically you just let go of any logic or traditional narrative structure and simply follow what the next crazy story path it will takes you with.Being a HK movie,felt the premise a bit restraint and not cuckoo enough.Also the compulsory social commentary on HK's political scene was forced.Luckily strong performance from Lam Shuet and Simon Yam kept the movie in line to a somewhat watchable movie.
Not everyone's cup of coffee.Prefer this to that bloated giant lizard movie screening right now.

This post has been edited by 6so: May 15 2014, 07:52 PM

Nymphomaniac Vol1

Had the dvd for a month and only got to watch it just now.All in all a pretty solid movie with strong performances across all board.Glad Lars Von Trier didn't go overboard with the sex scenes as I don't find it all that exploitative like a porno flick.Those scenes were used more as a tool to reflect emotions and a way to move the storyline forward.At it's core it's a very good character study movie and realistic family drama.That Uma Thurman scene is very funny and sad to watch.

Filth - An adaptation of Irvine Welsh's classic novel

Before there was Fight Club, Welsh's Trainspotting is the reigning poster boy for edgy and inventive literature.While Filth's protagonist Bruce has some similar theme and context to Palahniuk's Tyler Durden,the premise wrapped with thick Scottish element sets it apart as a rip-off from Fight Club.To be fair Filth was published a lot more earlier than Fight Club.
Story wise it's not as flashy as Mark Renton drug fueled adventures, McAvoy's Bruce was cut from the same cloth.So expect wanton amount of sex and depravity.There are many great characters littered throughout the movie.The first two acts were fantastic while the third act loses a wee bit of momentum.

James McAvoy once again delivered a compelling performance with twisted characteristic kept the movie highly watchable.

Overheard 3

Hope this is the last entry to this surveillance franchise. Things are getting repetitive and formulaic. Essentially, it's still the first movie just with different themes. Firstly identified a social injustice matter and find characters embroiled with it in a convoluted manner. Have surveillance gadget to save the day and some double crossing to keep things barely plausible. At times the story became too confusing, just for the sake of a complicated story. Finally ties the ending with a melodramatic prologue.

Personally felt the 2nd movie still the better one in this trilogy.

This post has been edited by 6so: May 31 2014, 06:38 PM

Only Lovers Left Alive - Jim Jarmush telling a sort of vampire story...I think.

On the surface, this could be labelled as a hipster movie. But under Jim Jarmush, it became an idiosyncratic film happily sits on his already impressive filmography.

This movie reminded me a lot of Neil Gaiman's Sandman where Morpheus met up with his sister Death to simply catch up with life. It's all very human and poetic while we know these are omnipotent beings who lives an eternity where they are finding meaning or coming to terms of what they are. Here we have Adam and Eve, who are centuries old vampire lovers who long for each other. Adam the introvert one gets a visit from Eve where they had an idyllic reunion. It's not a conventional beginning, middle and an ending type of story. Scenes and dialogue felt very natural and improvised on the fly. It's almost felt like seeing two very accomplished actors performing on a stage play without boundaries of a script. The soundtrack laced with moody psychedelic rock simply a perfect compliment to this beautiful movie.

If you like Sofia Coppola type of movies, do give this flick a shot.

This post has been edited by 6so: Jun 3 2014, 07:55 PM

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Simply the best Wes Anderson movie by far. After The Darjeeling Limited felt his films not going anywhere. Retreading similar theme over and over again. While it still puts a smile here and there, but it doesn't have the same panache of his earlier gems. Here he steps up his game with meticulous camera works, surreal production design, and the editing precision simply astounding. The off kilter banter between the characters were better than ever. We get to see Ralph Fiennes in a new light as he provides a good deal of smart and physical comedic performance. The cameos are ridiculously fun with one after another chimes in to provide more eccentric scenes. The funniest scene of all is during the prison break. They shot it like a real life Looney Tunes cartoon and imagine Harvey Keitel with Ralph Fiennes game enough to do it. Pure genius.

The single best 2014 movie for me at the moment.

Think you misinterpreted the story of those animals and the bigger question that the movie wanted to ask. Quite sketchy in my memory as each of the animals represent a character that stranded on the boat. Hyena is the cook, Orang Utan is Pi's mother and Zebra is the asian sailor. They act as a metaphor to convey the condition/emotional state of each animal exhibit. Hyena is relentless to eat everything, Orang Utan represent maternal instinct and while Zebra is the helpless victim. Richard Parker only appears after Pi wounded hyena. The tiger personified hatred/cruelty that Pi unleash during the actual event where the cook did cannibalized the sailor as Pi's mom died protecting him. The bonding scenes with the tiger is a way for Pi to illustrate his struggle to keep Richard Parker persona at bay. The mystical island represents the boat he's in. So when he made the decision to leave the island, he is leaving his hatred behind as Richard Parker walks away.

When Pi posed the question which stories you prefer is a way to say do you want to be consumed by hatred which was the actual horrible ordeal he experienced or you choose life over hatred by having a belief in God that gives you hope to overcome hatred.

This post has been edited by 6so: Jun 9 2014, 08:56 PM

The Immigrant
Continuing the trend to reveal a hidden past in the glorious Americana history after 12 years of slave became a hit in Hollywood. This time around is about how early immigrants were exploited during the 20/30's era. The always stunning Marion Cottilard plays victim to a greasy Joaquin Phoenix pimp. It may be a familiar story we have seen before, but the great Darius Khondji cinematography saves the movie from your average melodramatic period piece. The acting and directing is pretty solid, but the story felt way too conventional and the dreaded semi happy ending. Jeremy Renner flamboyant casting felt out of place as he looks too sophisticated to be in that period.

A so-so watchable movie with strong performance by the two leads.

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

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

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

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

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

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.