Since reviews are not necessarily on current movies playing in theaters, here's one from me:


The Mural (2011)

This is a Chinese movie directed by Gordan Chan (of Painted Skin) and the cast are mostly China stars. In the lead are Deng Zhao, Betty Sun and Collin Chou (Seraph of The Matrix). Eric Tsang of Hong Kong has a cameo role.

The story deals with scholar Zhu Xiaolian (Deng Zhao) and his adventures in fairy land. The way he got to the fairy land is through a mural that he found painted on a wall in a temple. Adapted from one of the tales in Liao Zhai.

First and foremost, this movies features loads of beautiful women with at least half a dozen in major supporting roles. This is what you get when the core of the story takes place in a land inhabited by fairy maidens and no men are allowed.

Secondly, if you want to enjoy this movie you would have to view it as a tale of love and forget everything else. Although it may be marketed as a fantasy action flick, this description will only lead to disappointment for those looking for great action scenes. You can find more exciting action scenes in an episode of anime series.

The movie is beautifully shot and the set pieces are great to look at. Although you could easily spot the CGI effects, the fantasy settings kinda makes it justifiable.

All in all, it's a good tale of love being told and is quite enjoyable. The only grouse I had was with the pacing of the movie.

Painted Skin I (2008) & II (2012)

Looks like I am a sucker for fantasy-romance tale. Here is my review on another Chinese fantasy romance tale that is also adapted from the Tales of Liao Zhai.

I will regard the 2 movies as one tale in this review but let it be known that one need not see part 1 in order to understand part 2. So on with the cast list:

Painted Skin I has Zhao Wei, Zhou Xun, Chen Kun and Donnie Yen as the leads. It's directed by Gordon Chan.

Painted Skin II sees Zhou Xun reprising her role also playing opposite Zhao Wei and Chen Kun. Donnie Yen did not appear in this one. Directed by one called Wuershan and don't ask me who he is.

In Painted Skin I we are introduced to a fox spirit called Xiao Wei (Zhou Xun). She has cultivated enough magical energy over the centuries to appear as a beautiful and seductive damsel. Although she looks ravishing she needs to periodically devour human hearts to keep appearing young and beautiful. One day while she is out to seduce men, Xiao Wei comes across General Wang Sheng (Chen Kun) who saves her from a bunch of bandits and takes her back with him to his fortress/outpost. Xiao Wei's demonic energies alerts a rookie demon hunter, Xia Bing (Betty Sun) of her presence and Xia Bing sets out to capture or eliminate her.

Intrigued by this General, Xiao Wei decides to stay and learn about this human emotion called love. She then plots her way into his heart although she knows that the general is already married to Pei Rong (Zhao Wei). Sensing a change in her husband's behavior ever since Xiao Wei's arrival, Pei Rong seeks the help of her ex-lover Pang Yong (Donnie Yen). Talk about complicating an already complicated problem. Pei Rong suspects that Xiao Wei is a demon spirit but Pang Yong initially brushes it off. Later with Xia Bing's help, Pang Yong is finally able to unmask Xiao Wei but Xiao Wei is not going to surrender without a fight.

Painted Skin I ends with Xiao Wei finally understanding what love really means but not all who loves get their happy endings.

Painted Skin II aka Painted Skin : The Resurrection picks up the tale 500 years later. We are told that due to her transgressions into the human world, Xiao Wei the fox spirit is imprisoned in a dungeon of eternal ice as punishment. A bird spirit, Qu Er (Yang Mi) however, comes across Xiao Wei's prison and inadvertently sets her free. Having being freed from her icy dungeon does not mean Xiao Wei is liberated however. She is persistently being pursued by forces unseen and unnamed that endeavors to trap her under the ice again.

Xiao Wei now plans to escape her fate by becoming human. To do so she must seek a mortal that has a strong and warm heart. The catch is that the human must be willing to give Xiao Wei her heart. She must not grab it by force.

Xiao Wei finds a suitable candidate in Princess Jing (Zhao Wei) who is on her way to the White City a border outpost. Unbeknownst to them, Princess Jing is also targeted by a the Tianlang kingdom (who practices black magic) for her strong heart. The Tianlang kingdom has offered an alliance with the king (Princess Jing's father) of the middle kingdom by way of marriage between the Tianlang's crown prince and Princess Jing.

Princess Jing, unwilling to be married off to a distant kingdom, goes AWOL to seek her one and only love Huo Xin (Chen Kun) who is the general in White City. Huo Xin is also in love with Princesss Jing but he blames himself for causing her disfigurement and believing that he is not worthy of being together with Princess Jing, exiles himself to the border outpost White City. In the same city lives a bungling demon hunter Pang Lang (Feng Shaofeng) who makes a living selling herbal medicine more than actual demon hunting. In fact Pang Lang has never even encountered a real demon before but the surname Pang seems to suggest that he is the descendant of Pang Yong and Xia Bing. Pang Lang finally gets his chance to meet demons when Xiao Wei and Qu Er comes to the city. He ends up making friends with Qu Er.

Xiao Wei takes advantage of the situation between Huo Xin and Jing to persuade Jing into giving Xiao Wei her heart willingly. Xiao Wei tricks Jing into believing that Hou Xin left Jing because of her now disfigured face. Xiao Wei offers a trade in which Jing has to offer Xiao Wei her heart for Xiao Wei's flawless looks. Jing agrees and the trade is made. Xiao Wei is now human with Jing's body while Jing gets Xiao Wei's body minus her heart.

Xiao Wei goes off for the arranged marriage while Jing (in Xiao Wei's body) remains with Huo Xin. When Xiao Wei reaches the Tianlang kingdom, she finds out too late that the marriage is a ruse and that she is now helpless as she no longer has her magical powers to help her escape. Qu Er however finds out about the swap and rushes off to tell Pang Lang who informs Hou Xin and they set off to rescue both Xiao Wei and Jing.


Both movies has great acting on the part of the leads. They also offer some slick action scenes but Painted Skin I comes out on top due to Donnie Yen's presence. The story is also pretty entertaining and is well worth a viewing but bear in mind that at the core, this is a tale about love and sacrifice in a fantasy setting. Sensual and beautiful. I'd recommend watching them.

You mean the 'Siin Lui Yau Wan' (in Cantonese) series? Starring Leslie Cheung as scholar Ning Choi San and Joey Wong as Siu Siin?

If the above is the series you are talking about then yes. I've watched all 3 in the series.

The first in the series : A Chinese Ghost Story 1 or 'Siin Lui Yau Wan' starring Leslie Cheung and Joey Wong is the best of the 3. Tells the tale of how an innocent scholar ends up in a haunted temple controlled by a thousand year old tree demon. Siu Siin is a female ghost under the tree demon's control and her job is to seduce the men keeping them in the temple until the tree demon comes and devour them. Lucky for Ning Choi San, Siu Siin takes a liking to him as he's innocent, honest and naive. The 2 them teams up with Yin Chek Ha, a taoist exorcist to defeat the tree demon.


The second in the series : A Chinese Ghost Story 2 or 'Siin Lui Yau Wan II : Yan Kan Dou' is the worst of the lot. Deals with Ning Choi San coming across a girl that is the spitting image of Siu Siin but she is apparently human and not a ghost. Can't remember much after that but Leslie Cheung and Joey Wong reprises their roles and Lee Kar Yan also stars. This one lost the clever humor of the first movie and the story not as interesting.


The third in the series : A Chinese Ghost Story 3 or 'Siin Lui Yau Wan III : Dou Dou Dou' is also quite good. This one regained the humorous moments that the first movie had. This one stars Joey Wong as Siu Cheok rather than Siu Xiin. She is another ghost under the tree demon's control. It is said that the tree demon is too strong to be vanquished forever and has regained its strength and presides once again in the old abandoned temple in the first movie after a passing of 500 years. Tony Leung Chui Wai stars as Sap Fong a novice monk that travels with his master and ends up spending a night in the haunted temple. Also stars Jacky Cheung as a taoist exorcist also called Yin Chek Ha.

Given the time, the special effects look cheesy by today's standards but they were quite good back then. The acting was top notch from both Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung as well as Wu Ma and Jacky Cheung as Yin Chek Ha. Joey Wong is more eye candy than anything but she held her own too in the acting department. I guess the role of an lonely emo ghost suited her.

Entertaining stuff that's hard to come by in today's Hong Kong fares.

A Chinese Ghost Story (2011)

Since we are already on this topic, might as well review the re-imagining of the tale of Siu Siin in the new movie also called A Chinese Ghost Story released in 2011.

This new movie stars Louis Koo as Yin Chek Ha and Liu Yifei as Siu Siin and is directed by Wilson Yip.

I must say that this movie is a big disappointment for me. They had a great premise going on but they wasted it all on the execution. I label this movie as a re-imagination of the original tale because apart from the same characters, the story is fundamentally different.

In this new tale, Yin Chek Ha is a world weary Taoist exorcist when we meet him. Apart from exorcising demons, he seems to have distanced himself from everyone and everything. When a bumbling Ning Choi San (Yu Shaoqun) stumbles into the scene, he attracts the attention of the lovely damsel ghost Siu Siin. Of course Siu Siin is bound to a powerful tree demon as per the original tale.

We then find out that Yin Chek Ha and Siu Siin has a past. It is this past that is haunting Yin Chek Ha. Not so long ago, Yin Chek Ha and Siu Siin were lovers and because of this love affair, Yin Chek Ha became complacent and in one incident, his tardiness resulted in the deaths of some of his fellow exorcists. Yin has never forgiven himself for that and as punishment, he sealed off Siu Siin's memory of their time together and outcast himself.

Ning Choi San's presence re-unites Siu Siin and Yin Chek Ha and even drew the ire of the Tree Demon that has enslaved Siu Siin. Things come to a head when all the parties clash and in the final battle, the Tree Demon is finally defeated but not without some casualties.

This movie features some beautiful scenes and updated special effects but is hampered by an indecisive script and weak acting. Liu Yifei, while no slouch in the beauty department, is wooden in her acting as Siu Siin. Yu Shaoqun is even worse as Ning Choi San. You could replace him with an actual plank with dialogue written on a piece of paper stuck to it. Louis Koo does not fare much better and mainly puts on a sad face most of the time. There's little chemistry between Siu Siin and Yin Chek Ha or Ning Choi San.

Kara Hui, a veteran of Hong Kong serials, hams it up to the max as the Tree Demon and may be the only one whose acting is appropriate in the movie.

I actually liked the idea that Yin Chek Ha and Siu Siin has a backstory but this little twist to the original tale was squandered when the writers could not decide to showcase Siu Siin/Chek Ha or Siu Siin/Choi San as the main relationship in the movie.

I'll only give this a 2 out of 5 stars rating and won't recommend fans of the original movie to see this one unless you really have nothing else better to do on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Disappointing.

Fast & Furious 6 (2013)


Caught this over the weekend. My verdict is : it's a fun movie and fits the franchise. Is it worth the ticket? Well, if you're a fan of the series and don't care much for overly complicated plot or physics, then go watch this by all means. If you are a physics nut that wants realism then forget it.

Furious 6, as the title sequence labels it, re-unites Dominic Torreto (Vin Diesel), Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker), Mia Torreto (Jordana Brewster) and their team. It also sees Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson reprising his role as the 'tough-as-nails' DSS agent Hobbs. This movie takes place about 1 year after FF5 left off. Using the money gotten from the heist in FF5, the members of the team are now scattered across the globe, each doing their own thing. Dom is living a quiet life with Elena (the female Brazilian cop from FF5) and Brian is playing daddy to his son with Mia in a serene house overlooking the sea.

Their idyllic lives are then shattered when Hobbs turns up in Dom's front porch bearing a file and photo. Hobbs asks Dom to assemble his team and help out. Dom refuses at first until he saw that it was Letty in the pic. Dom then agrees to help Hobbs and together with Brian, they assemble the team. Brian negotiates for full pardon of their previous crimes for all in the team and Hobbs agrees if they manage to bring down the bad guy in this movie, Owen Shaw.

This time Dom and gang are on the right side of the law but they are up against Shaw who is no two bit criminal. He's an cunning and cold mastermind that hijacks military convoys for top secret components. Shaw has also got Letty (who has lost her memories) working for him. The 2 opposing teams clash in a game of cat and mouse played out using cool and fast cars on the streets. Dom in interested in getting Letty back. Brian is trying to make amends for almost causing Letty's death in FF4 while Hobbs is only interested in apprehending Shaw.

The climax sees the gang going up against a tank and later against an huge cargo aircraft on what seems like the longest runway on the face of the earth. My advise is to throw logic out the window, sit back and enjoy the ride. The action sequences are great to watch and the team is back with their familiar characters.

Oh and stay back for a while during the credits and catch the teaser for the upcoming Fast & Furious 7 with one familiar action star making his debut in the Fast and Furious franchise.

This post has been edited by shootkk: May 27 2013, 10:22 AM

BandSlam (2009)


Do you like romantic comedy? Do you like music? Do you like high school movies? If you said 'yes' to all three questions then go watch Bandslam. This is a 2009 movie. Yes. It's been quite a while but a good movie's still a good movie, right?

Starring Vanessa Hudgens (of High School Musical fame), Aly Michalka and Gaelan Connell in the leads, Bandslam is the story about 3 persons that forms an unlikely relationship around music.

Will Burton (Gaelan Connell) is the boy that is the target of all bullies in high school. He's not good looking. He's a bit of a geek and the popular guys and gals avoid him like the plague. He ends up moving to another state and a new high school and tries to start life anew.

There, he meets Sa5m (Vanessa Hudgens) whose name is pronounced as Sam because the 5 is silent. Sa5m is also an outcast of sorts in the school and Will realises that he and Sa5m has to do Social Studies class project together. Will also learns that in his new high school, Bandslam is a big thing. Bandslam is a competition for high school bands and the winner gets a recording contract.

Will also crosses paths with Charlotte, a senior in the school. Charlotte is pretty, sexy and popular and was once the captain of the cheerleaders. Charlotte approaches Will and befriends him much to Will's surprise. It turns out that Charlotte is the vocalist for a band of her own that is made up of the rejects of Charlotte's ex-boyfriends's band called 'Ben Whitley and the Glory Dogs'. Will, who knows a lot about music, gets strongarmed by Charlotte into managing her band.

Will gathers a few other people to join Charlotte's band and they start to sound pretty good. Meanwhile he finds himself falling for Sa5m. They decide to join Bandslam also with their new band called 'I Can't Go On, I'll Go On'. As the competition draws near, Will and Sa5m's relationship is put to the test and Charlotte's ditches the band last minute when her father passes away. Is this the end for Will's band or will Will find the will to go on?

This movie features a lot of good music and some of them are performed by Aly Michalka and Vanessa Hudgens themselves. The story is also heartwarming and the acting feels real. The leads are quite convincing in their roles. There's some laughs throughout and the movie is never boring despite it not being an action movie.

Recommended.

Monsters Inc (2001)

Monsters University (2013)


I am a big fan of Pixar. I'll admit it. Hooked when Toy Story came out. So it'll be no surprise when I say that Monsters University is a good watch. I'm not saying that just because I'm a fan but because it's really worth a view. Since I can't review one movie without the other, I'll do both in one go.

If you have seen Monsters Inc. about a dozen years back, you will know that Monsters University is a prequel to that first movie. Monsters Inc was one of the best from Pixar. It's creative, fresh and the story is really touching. In Monsters, we are shown that there is a parallel universe that exists alongside ours. Monsters inhabit that universe and much like ours, the monsters have day jobs and go about their lives. There's only one thing that ties their universe to ours : human screams power the monster's world like electricity powers ours. To get power, monsters have to come to our world and scare children when they are in bed. When the children scream, the screams are collected and used to power the monster world. Now, these monsters are by no means all evil and mean any harm. They just want to power their world and the monsters that comes to our world are called scarers and it's their job to scare.

How do the monsters get to our world? Well, they have developed a kind of portal technology that uses doors; closet doors to be specific. When a portal door is powered up and opened, it opens to our world and the monsters step out of our closets. Children room's closets to be exact. Ever heard about children complaining about monsters emerging from their closets? Well, this is why. Brilliant concept!

In Monsters Inc. we follow Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) and James P. Sullivan (John Goodman), 2 monsters and best friends working in Monsters Inc, a power company. Sullivan or Sulley is a scarer and Mike is his assistant. Things get out of hand when Sulley finds an unattended door in their workplace after office hours when he goes back to collect his paperwork. After a little investigating, Sulley unwittingly lets a human child into their world. In the monster world a human child is considered highly toxic and can kill a monster. When word about the child gets out, chaos erupts. Mike and Sulley has to find a way to get the child back to her world without hurting anyone.

Lots of laughs and lots of heart in Monsters Inc.


Monster University goes back to a time before Mike and Sulley were working in Monsters Inc. It starts with Mike being a young elementary school student. A field trip to Monsters Inc inspires Mike to want to become a scarer. He studies hard to achieve his dreams and gets accepted to Monsters University, a top school for scarers.

There he meets James P. Sullivan, a fellow scare major student and Mike cannot stand the sight of him. Mike is the typical nerd while Sulley is the typical jock. Their rivalry ultimately cause them both to be kicked out of the scare program. Mike, not wanting to give up on his dreams, plans to join the annual Scare Games on the campus and win it. This is to prove that he is the best there is and to force the dean to accept him back into the scare program. During the registration for the games, Mike makes a bet with the dean. If his team wins, the dean has to let him back into the scare program but if he loses, he will be expelled from the University. The dean accepts the bet but there is one problem: Mike's team is short of one member and there is no prizes for guessing who joins the team at the last minute. Yup. it's Sulley.

We then see how Mike and Sulley's friendship begins to form over the course of the movie.

Plenty of laughs to be had and it also has plenty of heart but not as much as Monster Inc.


Rating :

3.5 stars out of 5 for Monsters Inc.

3 stars out of 5 for Monsters University

Pacific Rim (2013)


Tokusatsu. If you understand that word and what it stands for, stop reading and go buy a ticket to watch the movie right now. For those that are not familiar with the word, here's a question: Did you enjoy Ultraman back when you were a kid? If you answered 'yes' then stop reading and go buy a ticket to watch the movie right now.

Yes. This movie is Hollywood's answer to Japanese tokusatsu series like Ultraman and Super Sentai. In that sense, it's a great watch. Don't go expecting mind blowing acting or complicated plots. It's like Ultraman. Monster appear. Human fight. Human loses. Ultraman appears. Ultraman fights. Ultraman wins. Everybody celebrates. That's basically the whole plot. Just substitute Ultraman with Jaegers. While Ultraman uses actors in rubber suits, Pacific Rim has plenty of budget to make both the Jaegers and monsters look real. The cities that got thrashed during the fights looked very real too. So it's all good!

The special effects are great. The mecha / Jaegers moves realistically. The story is ok. Lots of action. All in all, great entertainment. I'm waiting for a Robotech live action movie now.

Rating : 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Transformers : Dark Of The Moon (2011)


A couple of months before I went and watched Pacific Rim, I watched Transformers : Dark Of The Moon on DVD. It was in the bargain bin so I thought that I could watch it when I had nothing to do and wanted to kill a couple of hours. So I bought it (I buy all ori DVD if you're wondering).

Big mistake.

The 3rd installment of Michael Bay's money spinning franchise is downright boring! I didn't expect anything from the movie and I was still bored watching it. It feels like everything but the last 45 minutes is just stalling so that Bay could unleash that final action sequence on the audience. Even though the special effects were nicely done, it feels empty.

The story is very thin and might I add that it does not gel well with the two prequels. In Dark Of The Moon, an ancient Transformer spacecraft is found on the dark side of the moon and the discovery was made way back in the 60's. So what the hell happened with Megatron being the first transformer discovered in the first movie?

So fine. I could excuse that but then we see a whole army of Decepticons being risen out from the moon dust for the final battle. WTF??!! If that army was there the whole time why didn't Megatron use them back in the first or second movie??!! Bay is very blatantly throwing whatever his plot needed into the movie and disregarding the continuity of the franchise.

And yes, Megatron is back yet again despite losing about a quarter of his head. I wonder if Megatron will be resurrected again for the fourth movie? Probably will.

Everything feels flat. Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is reduced to a whiny brat whose job is to whine until the crap hits the fan and triggers the final action sequence. His new girlfriend (Rosie Huntington Whitley) is nothing but eye candy. She has practically no role to play in the plot and the story could go carrying on without much hiccups even if she wasn't there.

Optimus Prime just brood and sulk until it's time for him to bash the heck out of Megatron and Sentinel Prime. Ironhide is killed off for nothing. Bumblebee just bumble around waiting for the last action sequence to start. No character development plots. Just waste time until the last 45 minutes.

Disappointing even when one has no expectations whatsoever.


Rating : 2 stars out of 5 and only because the special effects were nice.

Les Miserables (2012)


I must first say that I have not seen the musical stage performance of the same name. Neither have I read the book of the same name. This 2012 movie is all the exposure I have to the famous title. This 2012 movie is a musical and to say that this is a musical is an understatement. I have seen other musicals before but in Les Miserables, they sing everything. There's almost no dialogue. There are only songs. Whenever someone wants to convey something, they break out in song. Yes. I am not exaggerating. So if you do not like musicals, stay well away from this one.

Having said that, I find myself to be quite entertained by the movie. It's long but I never found it boring. The actors and actresses were wonderful in their performances. When I first bought the title I was a little worried that I may find it boring but my fears were unfounded.

Les Miserables tells the tale of Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman, that's Wolverine for you), a convict that has been released on parole after 19 years in prison in France in the 1800's. His crime was stealing bread. He could not find work and as a result loses faith in humanity. However a chance encounter with a bishop restores his faith in humanity and he wovs to start life anew. Assuming a new identity, Jean Valjean breaks his parole and becomes a successful businessman and owner of a factory.

Fantine (Anne Hathaway), a worker in Valjean's factory becomes the target of discrimination when the other factory workers find out that she has a daughter out of wedlock. Fantine is fired from her job and ends up as a prostitute to support herself and daughter. When Valjean stumbles across Fantine, he takes her under his protection but Fantine dies of her illness and Valjean promises to care for Cosette, Fantine's daughter.

Meanwhile, Javert (Russel Crowe) the prison guard that has been in pursuit of Valjean comes very close to discovering Valjean's identity but when the authorities captures another man that they mistakenly think is Valjean, Valjean reveals his true identity. Forced to be on the run, Valjean flees with Cosette to Paris where she grows up into a beautiful young lady (Amanda Seyfried). Here the story focuses on Cossete and her relationship with a young student revolutionist, Marius Pontmercy (Eddie Redmayne).

This movie will throw song after song at you. If you tune out, it's like missing out on all the dialogues. Thus it's only for people who don't mind musicals and pay attention to the lyrics. You have been warned.

Rating : 3 stars out of 5

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower (2012)


This movie is an adaptation of a novel of the same name and what's unique about this one is that the writer of the novel is the director of the movie. So in a sense, you cannot get a more faithful novel adaptation because the director, Stephen Chbosky, is the one who wrote the book!

Anyway, I have not read the novel and the only reasons I picked up the DVD is because:

a) Emma Watson is starring
b) My sister mentioned that she wanted to watch it when it was first released in theaters

When the DVD ended up in the bargain bin I thought that I might as well give it a go. Perks is a movie about Charlie (Logan Lerman) a freshman in high school. To say Charlie is introverted is an understatement. He starts high school with no friends after his best friend in middle school shot himself. He's has depression and has trouble fitting in.

Things starts to look up when Charlie befriends a senior, Patrick (Ezra Miller) that is retaking a workshop class Charlie is in. Through Patrick, Charlie also meets Sam (Emma Watson), Patrick's step sister who is also a senior. Charlie is smitten by Sam but he keeps this to himself and the trio becomes fast friends. The rest of the movie details the ups and downs in the trio's life from the start of the semester till Patrick and Sam's graduation.

If you think that so far the movie seems like your typical high school bubblegum pop movie, you're half right. Perks is a high school movie but it deals with very mature themes that teenagers deals with when they are in high school. Perks is drama and there's very little action but the story is paced well and I was never bored with it. If you like drama with a good story, then give Perks a try. I won't go into details because it will spoil the movie.

The acting is good and all the actors gave solid performances. The pacing is good and the movie will subtly reveal bits and pieces of the character's back story as the movie progresses to keep you glued to the screen. Nice watch for a lazy weekend afternoon.

Rating : 3 stars out of 5

Thanks for the review on Teen Beach Movie. I was thinking to catch it on Astro too but it managed to elude me. As to why movies like this sometimes have stronger scripts than big budget blockbusters is because movies like this holds no interest for those studio executives and thus they leave the movie making to those who actually knows how to make a movie. Executive meddling has ruined a lot of movies...

Ok... here's my review:


Wu Xia (2011)

Directed by Peter Chan and starring Donnie Yen and Takeshi Kaneshiro, this is a martial arts action flick that is not quite mainstream. This is not your typical martial arts hero movie where the protagonist kicks all of the bad guys' butts. This movie presents you with a dilemma and asks a hard question.

The story opens in a rural village in China. The Liu village a sleepy little hamlet where everyone knows everyone else and nothing much ever happens. Living in this little village is Jin Xi (Donnie Yen), his wife Yu (Tang Wei looking very common here) and his two sons. The older boy is from Yu's previous marriage while the younger boy is Jin Xi and Yu's. Jin Xi works in the local paper making mill and leads a very ordinary life.

The peace and quiet of the village is shattered one day when 2 bandits came along. The 2 bandits attempts to rob a sundry shop where Jin Xi is repairing a window. A tussle breaks out and Jin Xi clumsily wrestles with the bandits. In the end, the 2 bandits were dead seemingly from accidents during the tussle.

In steps Xu (Takeshi Kaneshiro) a local constable to investigate the case. He finds that one of the 2 bandits was actually a highly wanted fugitive and highly skilled martial artist known for his cruelty and brutality. Learning this, the local court official wants to quickly wrap up the case and hails Jin Xi as the hero in the case for bringing down a fugitive of the law.

Xu however is not convinced that the case is so simple and starts to dig deeper. His investigation reveals that the 2 bandits actually died from precision strikes to specific meridian points in the body. Only a very highly skilled martial artist could have pulled off such a strike but Jin Xi appears to be a very average person with no martial arts knowledge.

Xu begins to dig into Jin Xi's past. He finds that Jin Xi is not a local and had come to the Liu village a few years ago. He then married Yu and settled down in the Liu village adopting the Liu surname. Xu's investigation unveils that Jin Xi is actually Tang Long, a member of the 72 Demons gang from the vicious and bloodthirsty Tangut clan. He plans to arrest Jin Xi but Jin Xi tells him that he has renounced his association with the 72 Demon and is a changed man and no longer wants to kill indiscriminately. Xu seeks a warrant for Tang Long's arrest nonetheless and his action alerts the 72 Demons to Tang Long's whereabouts.

The 72 Demons descends upon the Liu village in an attempt to bring Tang Long back to the gang. This results more deaths of the innocent Liu villagers and the Demons indiscriminately burns down houses and confronts Tang Long. Tang Long is forced to reveal his identity but he still fights to protect his family and the villagers. Seeing this, Xu is torn between wanting to carry out his duty as a constable and arrest Tang Long or to go with what his heart feels is right but that means letting Tang Long go free.

Good story and good acting from the leads.

Rating : 3 stars out of 5

It's not surprising. I mean I don't believe that there is a 'factory' somewhere in Disney that stamps out clones of young stars but it makes perfect sense to try and imitate the successful stars.

They know for a fact that Zac Efron and Selena Gomez have herds of fans. If they could appeal to this segment of the audience then they would have a pool of ready target audience for their movie. The easiest way is to have them look like their more successful peers.

Iron Man 3 (2013)

Missed it when it was in the cinemas so I bought the DVD. If it had been the other way around, I doubt I would have bought the DVD. My first thoughts about the movie after the credits rolled was that it was a little too long and feels a little empty. The story did not grab like the first movie but overall it was better than the second movie.

Robert Downey Jr is back as Tony Stark aka Iron Man. With him is his girlfriend Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Rhodey (Don Cheadle) aka War Machine aka Iron Patriot. We see that Tony is having some trouble after the battle in Avengers. He can't sleep and to some degree, he is paranoid and prone to anxiety attacks whenever someone mentions New York. To cope he builds dozens of Iron Man suits.

The USA is under attack by a terrorist known as the Mandarin. The Mandarin has set off several high powered bombs around the country but the authorities could not find any forensic evidence of the explosives. When one of the attacks land Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), head of security of Stark Industries and long time friend to Tony into the hospital fighting for his life, Tony threatens to kill the Mandarin on TV. This brings the Mandarin to launch an attack that destroys Tony's house. Tony is presumed dead when he cannot be found.

Tony lands in rural Tennessee and holes himself up in a boy's garage while he investigates the Mandarin while fighting off his anxiety attacks. He finds that the Mandarin has been using humans that have undergone the Extremis procedure (which can help regenerate limbs from crippling injuries) as bombs as the procedure is flawed. This discovery leads him to Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), a scientist and owner of Advanced Idea Mechanics whom Tony has snubbed more than a decade ago when Killian proposes Tony to join him.

The climax sees dozens of Iron Man suits in battle with Killian's Extremis infused army of guards. The special effects are great to watch and all but the story just feels a little on the thin side. Entertaining enough to keep you distracted while watching but not strong enough to leave a lasting impression after the credits have rolled.

Rating : 2.5 out of 5 stars.

This post has been edited by shootkk: Sep 3 2013, 06:06 PM

The Hurt Locker (2008)

I do not and could not understand why this movie stole the thunder from James Cameron's Avatar at the Oscars back then. Although Avatar was mainly eye candy but it was pretty impressive eye candy. This movie however defied any classification from me.

I am a pretty patient guy. Especially when it comes to watching a movie in the comfort of my own home on DVD with no one around to bother me. Having said that, The Hurt Locker managed to break one of my records - it became the one and only movie that I could not sit through even when I was watching it at home. So far this record had stood.

The movie is about the war in Iraq. It focuses on a particular bomb disposal squad. One member died early in the movie and then there's this obnoxious replacement that does things his way and defies orders and shows how macho he was in the field. I don't get the point. All I see is one obnoxious bomb disposal officer and the pacing is boooooooooooorrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnggggggg!

After about 60 minutes into the movie with no obvious plot, I hit the off button on my DVD player.

Rating : 0 out 5 stars

Haha! Yes, the series has gone through some sort of transformation. It's now more of in line with heist movies that uses fast and powerful cars instead of just showcasing the cars as the stars of the movie.

The timeline of the series is non-linear. It goes like FF1 --> FF2 --> FF4 --> FF5 --> FF6 --> FF3 and FF7. We will see some tweaking to the FF3 story in FF7 as witnessed in the post credits scene in FF6 where Jason Statham made an appearance. All in all FF3 will be like a side story while the main storyline about Dom and the gang goes on.

Spoilers alert! The following contains spoilers about FF6. You have been warned!


In the post credit scene in FF6 we see Jason will be the new bad guy in FF7 and he's got a bone to pick with Dom and gang because his brother was killed by them. That's the reason Han was killed in the crash. It was no accident. It was revenge. This will tie back nicely to Dom's appearance at the end of FF3. Han was killed mid way through FF3 and Dom arrived in Tokyo at the end of FF3 and this should be the start of FF7.

I'm curious as to how they are going to make the story interesting. Han's dead. Gisele's dead. 2 of the more interesting characters are gone from the team and revenge is a plot device that we have seen so many times before.

As for the runway, yes, it's kind of silly. However I would like to think that most of the action takes place simultaneously but we were shown each of them one after another while they were happening at the same time. Kinda makes it a little more logical. Haha.

Planes (2013)


When you have kids, you go to the cinemas to watch animation films but then again, I am always up for animated features. Believe it or not with the recent offerings of live action mainstream movies from Hollywood these past couple of years, you can often find better stories in animated features.

The latest from Disney is Planes. It's a 3D animated feature ala Pixar's fare. There's a 3D version of the movie (a 3D of a 3D animated, haha) but I caught the 2D offering. If you don't mind the roller coaster ride, go 3D as in some parts of the movie the whole screen rotates to show you the cockpit view. I'm sure it'll be a blast for those who enjoy this kind of thing.

This is a spinoff from the world of Cars (Pixar's 2006 feature). If you are unfamiliar with Cars, it's set in a world where vehicles are sentient and replaces the human population. So the vehicles have eyes instead of a windscreen and can talk. Bear in mind that this is a Disney production and not a Pixar production. You can say that it's a product from the B-listers instead of the A-listers which Pixar is.

Planes tells the tale of one cropduster names Dusty Crophopper (voiced by Dane Cook). Dusty has been a cropduster all his life. According to him he has flown thousands of miles but have never been anywhere but his rural farm town. He dreams of being a racer plane and plans to join the Wings Across The World race. His buddy Chug (Brad Garrett) the fuel truck, supports him but his mechanic Dottie, a forklift, (Teri Hatcher) tries to discourage him and tells him that cropdusters are not made to fly very fast.

Dusty registers for the qualifiers anyway and tries to get Skipper Riley (Stacy Keach), an old Navy warplane to coach him. Skipper refuses at first and even without the coaching, Dusty makes impressive time at the qualifiers but wasn't fast enough to make it to the finals. Dusty's chance finally comes when one of the qualifiers found to be using banned fuel enhancers, was disqualified, bumping Dusty up the ranks.

Skipper once again tries to talk Dusty out of the race but seeing his determination decides to mentor him. During their training Skipper finds out that Dusty has one little problem :- He's afraid of heights. Despite this setback, Skipper continues to coach Dusty. Finally Dusty heads to New York to begin his first leg of the round the globe race. Can Dusty even survive the whole race?

Planes is your typical underdog story that leans heavily on the friendship can overcome hardship trope. Nothing surprising about the story line but it's well scripted enough to be entertaining for both kids and the adults accompanying them. Would I recommend adults to watch this if they don't have a kid in tow? Not really. Not unless you're a fan of animated features. The movie is great to look at. The backgrounds are beautiful but you can see that they didn't break the bank for it. All in all, wholesome family fun.

Rating : 3 stars out of 5 (for kids. For adults it's a 2.5 stars)

I beg to differ on the choice of the best animation movie in 2013 so far. Although I did enjoy The Croods, my vote would go to Monsters University (MU). I find that one can relate much better to MU although it's set in another universe. Just my 2 cents.

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.

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.