Spectre

Spectre is the latest James Bond movie (the 24th, as I was told), released just this week, starring Daniel Craig as the famous British spy 007.

I have never been a fan of Daniel Craig, the most un-handsome James Bond actor, but somehow in this episode, I think he did a pretty good job.  His coolness, his calmness bring out the charm of the James Bond naturally and perfectly.

The contribution from Q, in Spectre, is more impressive than the last Bond movie.  Q has evolved from an old techie playing with mechanical parts to a computer nerd, reflection of our time.

The movie is action-packed, other than pockets of love scenes, boring conversation has been less often.  Daniel Craig was jumping on top of building, fighting inside a helicopter, in a train, and involved in a high-speed car chase.  I don't know how much he was paid, but definitely he did make an effort to make every dollar he is paid worthwhile.

However, there are some laughable details.  For example, the bad guy built a secret facility in the middle of the desert, a secret facility that doesn't appear on the map, but you can find it from satellite images (probably from Google Earth?).  As it is a secret facility, the security is tight, there are security cameras everywhere, and guards watching Bond's every step.  Guess what, the facility was destroyed by Mr Bond with a SINGLE bullet to a critical pipe!  Alas, 'secret' facility.

Overall, I think the movie is not bad, good entertainment and you will never get bored.  Some initial reviews gave the movie a 1 out of 5 stars rating, I think those people more probably are some arty-farty nerds that have no idea what entertainment means.

Mission Impossible 5

Mission Impossible is a never ending series, and Tom Cruise seems to be the never ending hero as well.  The first Mission Impossible movie was released back in 1996, almost 30 years ago.  And until today, we are still seeing the never-get-old Tom Cruise doing the impossible in the movie.

M. I. 5 continues to give movie goers the thrill of actions and the complexity of the plot.  The story line is a little plain but yet still have some necessary twists and turns, and suspense sometimes, to keep the audience's attention.

Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson adds quite some life to the movie and makes the movie more interesting.

Overall, it is a good action movie that entertains the audience well.

Terminator: Genisys

For the very first time, I watch TERMINATOR in a cinema.  In the past, I could only watch such western movies on TVB's Pearl channel on weekend evenings at 9.30pm.  

Back to the movie, the first impression is that there is quite a bit of naked flesh, especially man flesh.  The girls may like it.  The 67-year old former governor of California Arnold did a very good job.  He is both serious and funny, fatherly yet tough.  I am an admirer of Arnold, for his acting skills, and his way of living life to the full (his affair is not included).

The storyline is not plain or easy to guess, rather there are quite a bit of twists and turns, and sometimes you really need a bit of guessing to figure out what is true what is fake.

I will say it is a very good movie and you should not miss it.

Ant Man

Going against the trend of bigger is better, Marvel came up with its latest super hero - Ant Man!  Well, I will say not really that super hero.  Our Ant Man, as the name suggests, is of the size of an ant.  He is of no super hero, rather he looks more like the guy next door, having many personal problems in his private life.  

The story line is not exactly very strong, as you can expect from sci-fi movies.  However, this movie is full of humorous conversations.  The audience will be kept in a laughter mode.  Ant Man is also a break from the normal stereo type of heroes, quite a fresh view.

I will say despite all the flaws, it is a movie worth watching!

Edge of Tomorrow

Edge of Tomorrow is a science fiction movie based on a Japanese novel All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka.

Before going for the movie, I had read up about it so my expectation was not too high, thinking it might most probably have some resemblance to similar movies such as Looper.  And that was proven for the first half an hour?  After that, things are more unexpected.

Sustaining the whole movie and have all the details organically linked up, Tom Cruise's acting skills are essential.  He is the soul and flesh of the movie, without him, I think the movie might be a lot lackluster.  For the very first time, I admire Tom Cruise's acting skills, they are worth my praise.

The movie has an interesting start, exciting middle, but a cliche ending.  The ending is so expected, and so plain that it takes all the excitement out.

As a side talk, I notice aliens in our sci-fi movies always tend to have this octopus look, with lots of arms.  I wonder why do we human always imagine aliens to be that form?  Is it because some of us indeed have seen them before?  Interesting...

My Rating: 4/5

Elysium

Elysium, my idol Matt Damon's latest action movie, is action packed, the story is tight giving no moment of feeling bored.

The story is set in the year about 150 years from now.  By then, the wealth gap has become extremely huge, the rich move to the outer space to continue their posh style of life, whilst the poor remain on planet Earth, to endure the almost unbearable harsh conditions and work as cheap labour.  Doesn't it sound like what we are seeing now?  The rich western countries such as US & Europe enjoy the beauty of unspoiled natural environment, whilst people in poor countries such as China and India, and many more Asian, African, South American countries are trading their environment for survival?  Somehow it also has a slight shadow of the Hunger Games.

The movie is action packed, full action from the beginning to the end.  Somehow the director likes to use a special way of capturing actions, with the scene almost blur and hard to distinguish who is who.  Luckily I watched the 2-D version, if I watched the 3-D version, probably I would get a headache.

There are many loopholes in the plot, I will let you to spot them and make fun of the poor script-writer.  Anyway, the script-writer is more concerned about the action rather than the plot, so more or less you can put your detective mind at rest, and just sit back and relax to enjoy 100 minutes of pure entertainment.

Rating:  3/5

The Wolverine

Another installment of MARVEL heroes, another episode of the X-Men series.  This time, Wolverine goes to Tokyo, Japan.  He was invited there to say Good-bye to a Japanese army officer turned entrepreneur Mr Yashida, who he saved in Nagasaki.

We have quite a bit of twists and turns in terms of the plot, which is good, but overall the movie is a bit draggy.  More than once I would like to click the fast-forward button, if one were there.

Actors and actresses are mostly competent in their acting, except Rila Fukushima as Yukio.  First I don't know why they chose such an actress with that kind of look, especially her eyes.  The acting is more dramatic than all the others, very unnatural.

Overall rating:  3/5

Life of Pi

Life of Pi, the movie poster is somehow misleading.  Looking at the movie poster, I thought it was about the adventure of a young boy in the open sea.  Mmmh, indeed it is true, to some extent, but then there is a lot of religion factors in the movie, from Hindu, to Christianity, to Islam.  You can't watch such a movie with a simple mind.  If you do, you will find it really boring, as there is only a little of humour here and there, a little of adenture here and there, and then that's the end.

Just before the end, the director, or the script writer, teased the audiences, came up with an alternative story, and the audiences have to decide which story they have to believe.  The audience can only choose which story to believe, but they will never know which one is the true story.  The young man in the movie, Pi, is the sole survivor of the shipwreck, nobody is alive to dispute his stories.  Only he himself knows the truth while all others can only make a guess.  That leads me to agree that history is written by the winners, as all the losers are dead and they will have a chance to present their side of the story.

As entertainment, Life of Pi, is not really that entertaining; as a philosophy movie, yes it is thought provoking.  You like it or you don't like it, watch it yourself and decide :)

Cold War

It has been years since I last went to cinema to watch a Chinese movie, especially a Hongkong movie.  Hongkong movie equals nothing but crap in my mind, for a long time.  Cold War breaks that stereo-type.

The story is very well written.  A brutal war is going on, but it is just like the under current in the sea, you can hardly see it from the surface.  Enemy is faceless, every one can be a friend or a foe, that's what the two deputy chiefs of police of Hongkong are facing.

The audiences are like riding a plot roller coaster, when you are pushed to the very top of the plot, there is a sudden twist of the story, the unthinkable happens.

Story aside, the actors' skillful acting adds a lot of points too.  Three time Hongkong film award winner Tony Leung Kah Fai and Heavenly King Aron Kwok both did an excellent job.

If you have not watched this movie, I would recommend you to watch it.

My rating:  8/10

Skyfall

It has been quite a while since last episode of 007 movies.  Skyfall came with high publicity and high expectations.  I was eager to watch it first hand and so I did it on the first weekend since its release.

First impression:  It is big production.  The file was shot at at least four different locations, namely Istanbul, Shanghai, Macau and London, and probably Scotland, which will make it 5 locations.

For people who also watched TAKEN 2 before watching SKYFALL, they may have a bit of disorientation as whether they are watching TAKEN 2 or SKYFALL actually.  The first scene was shot at the rooftops of the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul with the beautiful blue mosque as the background, which is almost identical to TAKEN 2, and people chasing after each other on the same roof top!

The scene of Macau I guess is totally fictitious, as I have never known of such a location in modern Macau, even though I can't say I know Macau in every single detail.  Never mind, it is a movie, it is supposed to bring fantasy to life.

The plot is interesting, but it is not organized or linked organically.  The scene in Shanghai looks like rather irrelevant, other than artificially adding some Chinese element to the taste hopefully to entice its Chinese viewers.

One of the key features of every Bond movie is from the Q section of MI6.  Mr Q will always come up with some new and fancy gadgets that will save Mr Bond's life in a hilarious way.  Mr Q used to be an old and fragile gentleman.  In this episode, Mr Q has a new successor, a modern age young techie, supposed to be a computer genius.  However, the 'new' gadgets are not really new, and their usefulness is very much in doubt.

Another observation is why modern people think a think layer of glass and electronic locks are strong enough to lock up criminals?

There are many surprises in the plot, there are many flaws in the plot.  There are plenty of actions in the movie, although this episode doesn't offer too many beauties to please the viewers' eyes.


Overall rating:  7/10

Immortals

Looking for some entertainment in a rainy weekday afternoon, so went to watch Immortals at Cathay.

The movie is again about the fight between good and evil, Gods and Titans.  Somehow the Zeus, king of all gods, appears as a middle age man, with a perfect man's body.  It is quite a difference from the Zeus that we see in more traditional painting and sculptures where Zeus has been portrayed as a kind old man.

Theseus, played by Henry Carvill, is great material as a model, with again, a perfect man's body.  The muscles are so well defined.  I think the girls most probably will be drooling all the time.  However, somehow he doesn't appear to be a great hero, as he has neither lots of courage, nor strategy against the enemies.  Rather, his totally unnoticeable hero support, Stavros, seems to be more knowledgeable, and has more tactics.

The movie has quite a lot of CGI, giving the audience a sense of mystery, and lots of elements for a mythology  movie.  In addition, the movie is bluntly bloody.  Humans, gods, titans are slaughtered with utmost brutality, splashing flesh and blood everywhere.  Definitely this movie is not suitable for young children.

After watching this movie, you may conclude that there are no more gods nor titans in this world, as they have all been killed by each other.  Guess what is the end of the movie?  King of Gods, Mr Zeus, was busy fighting a war with the Titans in heaven!  No wonder he has no time to take care of Greece's national debt :)  That explains why Europe now is in a deep financial crisis.  

The Adventures of Tintin - The Secret of The Unicorn

It seems like Hollywood has somehow run out of ideas for new movies, so they just re-make the classic old movies.  The Adventures of Tintin is based on a comic book, and also a cartoon series in the middle of the last century.  People who grew up reading Tintin comics now are in there 70s or even 80s, the new generation  may not have even heard of it.  So, it is time to re-introduce this old world adventure character to the new generations.

The movie combines 3 original Tintin series into a single episode, so there is a lot of compression of the story, and quite a bit of deviation from the original cartoon.  There is a typical Hollywood signature style of being too hasty in story development, I call it 'fast food' storyline.  The 'original' Tintin fans may get a bit disappointed, but the new generation fans may be just happy with the modern version.

I watched the 2D version.  The characters are very 'plastic'.  It is neither real human like, nor cartoon like, it is in between, like your plastic barbie doll.

My Rating: 3/5

1911 Revolution 辛亥革命

This is Jackie Chan's 100th film, and it comes at the 100th anniversary of Xinhai (1911) revolution.

The movie has a bit of identity crisis, it seems like the scriptwriter doesn't know what he/she wants to portrait for this movie, whether it is a movie of history, a war movie, a movie of love, or whatever.  It seems like the movie wants all, but then unfortunately achieves none beautifully.

What is more sad is that, the wishes of the revolution's leader, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, one century after the 1911 revolution, are still not fully fulfilled.  

大武生（My Kingdom）

It has been quite a long time since the last time I watched a Chinese movie in a cinema, and Wu Zhun & Han Geng's 'Da Wu Sheng' (My Kingdom) is the latest one.

Story-wise, the plot is not that bad, although it is still predictable, and the characters are really dumb.  They fight for nothing but a useless title.  They seek revenge and at the end, two talented young man can never go stage to perform again.

The movie has many theatre fighting scenes, quite an eye opener to people who have not seen Peking Opera before, like me.  You can find a 12-min trailer of the movie below.



My rating: 3/5

Final Destination 5 - Testing Your Bravery

Watched 'FINAL DESTINATION 5' over the weekend in JB.  The movie is shocking, bloody, violent, cruel, and offers no hope.  It serves as a test to your bravery when you are facing extreme tragedy, and the bloodest ever scene you have ever seen.  To add salt to the wound, nobody has a chance, even a slim one, to escape.  Buddhism sutra claims that if you are full of good karma, then you will not be afraid when faced with such extreme tragedy.  Obviously in this case I am not.  The show time for the movie is 1 hour 33 minutes in total, but I think I only watched for around 45 minutes, and spent the rest of the time with my eyes closed, and ears covered.  The death scenes are extremely bloody and not for the faint-hearted.

Unless you really want to test yourself, I would not recommend this movie.  This movie is not going to get you feel relaxed or happy after watching it.  

Transformer - Dark of the Moon

This is the very first time I watch a Transformer movie in cinema, and in 3D!  When I watched the last Transformer movie at my colleague's place, the scenes are confusing, objects flying around and making me feel dizzy.  I was a bit hesitant whether I should watch the 3D version, which might even worse!

Well, I was happy when the movie started.  The 3D scenes are there make the scene more vivid and realistic, but not to make you feel dizzy.  You get more sense of 'involvement'.

The story is plain and predictable, and as usual, a lot of scenes are totally unbelieveable.  For example, when one key character is about to die, there is always someone there to save him/her.  Ok, that's movie.  You can't compare that with real life stories :)

The female lead, Roise Huntington-Whiteley, is beautiful and a feast to the eyes.  I have read reviews criticizing her for lousy acting and does not fit with Sam well.  They are just jealous.  PERIOD.

If you are looking for some entertainment, to escape for a while from reality, it is a pretty good movie to watch.  If you are looking for complicated plots, thought-provoking philosophy, then please choose another one.

Pirates of the Caribbean 4 - On Stranger Tides

An impromptu decision to go over to JB's City Square on a Friday night to watch this latest instalment of the popular movie series.

Captain Jack Sparrow is still as humorous and quick-witted as before.  The story is not too twisted and not too unpredictable.  They also introduces a mermaid and a missionary in this episode to spice up the love part of the movie.  The mermaid is indeed beautiful and the missionary is handsome, good for people who are ogling for beautiful ladies and handsome men.  Part of the sure success formula of a successful movie :)

The movie is about 2 hours long and it offers audiences of 2 hours of entertainment.  As I watched it in JB, the cost is RM12, which is around S$5.00 going by today's exchange rate.  It is really good and cheap entertainment.  The only downside is that the guy on my right and the lady on my left both talked on the phone for a while.  It was annoying, but still not too bad.

My rating: 3.5/5 

Ip Man 2

Ip Man 2 is sequel of the hugely successful movie Ip Man.  As usual, the sequel is not as good as the first movie, and Ip Man 2 is, unfortunately, of no exception.  Still starring Donnie Yen as Ip Man, he is still so skillful in both fighting and acting, and still a man of manners, but this time the weak point is in the story.  The story is on the plain side and cliche.  Nonetheless, it is still a good movie, especially when you look beyond the surface.

Ip Man, as a Chinese kungfu master, has fought Japanese in episode 1, now fought a British in episode 2.  How much fact in the movie does not really matter, but Ip Man is actually the embodiment of China, China including both sides of the Taiwan Strait.  China had fought Japanese invasion, China had fought the British and won back Hong Kong, although a bit late, in 1997.  And now China is fighting with the descendants of the British - the Americans.  Ip Man's fight in the movie is a direct reflection of present day China's struggle to become strong and to stand equal to the super-powers, economic and military wise with the Japanese, British, & American.

detective dee and the mystery of the phantom flame

Detective Dee is another one of the star-studded, big production movies.  The stars are good, including Andy Lau, Liu Jia-ling, Liang Jia Hui and some others.  Their acting skills are not bad.  Then the director added in quite a bit of western style of dreamy fairy kind of computer graphics to make the movie more like happening in a fantacy land, rather than on planet earth. 

However, the story is not that great.  It is ok, but too lengthy, and they don't have much suspense.  I couldn't tell who the bad guy is until towards the end of the movie, but then somehow there is very little ups & downs and the movie simply doesn't attract your attention. 

You can watch this movie in a low cost way when you free and have nothing better to do :)

Legend of the Fist - Return of Chenzhen: Movie Review

I first blogged about the movie in this blog entry.  Thanks to the generosity of http://omy.sg, I got myself a pair of free tickets to the moive's gala premiere at Lido.  So today, after work I headed right down to Shaw House with a friend.

There was a reception there for the celebrities and VIPs.  Please forgive me, I really couldn't recognize anyone that I know.  My friend managed to spot our local TV star Li Nanxing.  Anyway, it is not important.

Let's talk about the movie.  With Donnie Yen being the action director, the actions will never disappoint.  The actions have Donnie's signature movements.  Fast, accurate, and lethal!  His fightings are real Chinese Kungfu, not something good for show only.

Then it came Chinese beauty Shu Qi.  Her interpretation of a Japanese secret agent disguising as a night club hostess is right to the point.  A bit more will be too much, a bit less will be insufficient.  And her beauty is hard to deny.

If we only have fighting and a beauty, the movie is hollow without a soul, but thanks to the playwright, the movie has a good story too.  The story was set in the 1920s'-30's Shanghai, during which time China was at the high of a civil war, and western countries as well as Japan were all eyeing a fat slice of China for their own interests.  Our hero in the movie - Chen Zhen (by Donnie Yen), together with many many other ordinary but patriotic Chinese work together to defend the country.  Many sacrificed their lives in the process.  A patriotic, and touching story.

The movie comes at a very sensitive time.  Sept 18, the date Japanese invaded the northern provinces of China in 1931, was just a few days ago.  It is considered to be one of the most unforgettable days in Chinese history.  And, Japan just detained the skipper of Chinese vessel around the disputed DiaoYuTai area.  The incident, coupled with the memorial activities of Sept 18, have led to street protests in many Chinese cities.

Let's hope people in both countries will realize borders are man-made, what is most important is to share the resources given generously by our mother nature.  Peace, all will win; war, everybody will lose.  Amman.