Finally new updates

JUst some quick rating of movies I had watched recently, being freaking busy for last 2 months and alot of things going through my mind. And for that i missed some major summer blockbusters like Transformers 2, Harry Porter and Ternimator Salvation, I hate myself for that. Will give more detailed ratings soon,

Movies

District 9 - 4/5 - I thought it was a freaking good original movie directed by a person who is only 29 and had never make a feature movie before. Too bad the third act of the movie was abit too long and the actions keep going on and on.

Up - 4/5 - I watched this in 3D which I hated which generally deducted 0.25 out of it. But the first half an hour of the movie was genius work and it shows why Pixar is still the motherfucking queen of animation.

The Hangover - 4/5 - Putting Tyson and his tiger in the most hilarious movie i had watched in recent years. It makes me want to buy a ticket to Las Vegas the very minute after watching it.

Public Enemies 2.5/5 - A very disappointing movie from a great director Michael Mann and everybody favourite Johnny Depp, too much like American Gangster, only much more boring then that.

Drag Me to Hell 3.5/5 - Sam Raimi of Spiderman went back to his horror roots and it brings out enough laughs n scare to satisfy my first movie fo a while.

DVDs

Departures - 3/5 - I thought this was really disappointing for a movie that won the Oscar for Best Foreign movie. It was only soso for me and not as touching as everybody had said. I don't really like the male main lead which I feel his "commercially J idol drama" acting method deducts points for the movie. Overly pretendious and trying more to look suave n good on screen then bringing in the drama emotions in.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall - 3.75/5 This is so freaking hilarious, Russell Brand is so funny that it overshadow the supposely lead Jason Segel in the movie. ANd the 2 female leads in the movies are really cute too.

I Love You Man - 3.5/5 Another bromance movie, not as funny but i thought it was not bad.

Look - 3/5 - An interesting indie movie shot in the point of views of surveillances cameras, you dunno who are watchinbg you...

Crank - 3/5 This movie is really nonsensical but in a good sort of way. The plot is ridiculous but watched it for the edgy editing and camera movements.

Bedtime Stories - 2/5 Adam Sandler one of my favourite comedic actor recent movies is getting from bad to worse. This is really some real boring piece of crap for children below 8. Hope his Funny People will be real good before i give up hope on him.

new ratings

Movies

Taken, Revolutionary Road, Chaser, Gran Torino

Taken
Directed By: Pierre Morel (District 13)
Rating: 3.25/5

Pierre Morel is the protege of French movie genius Luc Besson, and this movie totally reeks everything about Luc Besson , it remind you of movies like Leon the Professional, Taxi series and the Transporter trilogy.

The movie started nice and slow, we had a background about Liam Nesson character background, an ex-police spy who works as a preventer, preventing accidents to happen when you see him subduing an attacker from hurting a Miley Cyrus kinda character. Due to his work he also had a strained relationship with his ex-wife and the love of his life, his only daughter.

And once her daughter got kidnapped the movie keep moving non stop and might be the fastest 93 mins movie i even seen. I like this old school kinda action movie, but the movie don't seems to have any sense of logic. In superhero movies, even Spiderman and Batman get injured, but this guy seems to be even more of a superhuman and seems to know more things then God, the longer you watch on the more you think the movie is bullshitting. This guy is like Jason Bourne, James Bond , Jet Li and Albert Einstein combined in 1.

But I think the director managed to do the best he can with the medicore storyline, but the action sequences seems to be reptitive and the other supporting performances are really weak and stereotyping of other characters. I would also recommend another movie Man On Fire by Tony Scott starring Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning, which had a similar movie plot but i think the storyline is much better. Nevertheless it will be a good flick to spend your 93 mins if you had nothing better to do then watching the stupid flicks like Confessional of a Shopaholics or 17 Again.


Revolutionary Road
Directed By: Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition)
Rating: 3.25/5

This is not a film for everyone. If you are just looking to be entertained and have a good time seeing a film, I don't think I would recommend this. It's shows the stark brutal reality of an unhappy suburban couple, and it makes the current glooming economy even more dull. The feeling is like after losing your girlfriend you realise you lost your handphone.

The reason everybody should watch this movie is because the acting is amazing because it's simple and not overdone by the lead actors. Many things are not even said and just played with a flick of emotion across the face. You feel the anguish of the couple, of their boring life, you feel like you are one of them. And when the audience feel what the actors feel, I think the performance deserves to be applaud, especially for Kate Winslet. I think her performance here is even better then her Oscar winning performance in The Reader.


The Chaser
Directed By: Na Hong-Jin (debut)
Rating: 3.5/5

This story is really unbelievable in the first place, but after realising it is based on a true event, it shows how dumb Koreans are. The movie definely will be compared to other Korean psycho-thriller movie like Oldboy and Memories of Murder by the way it is shot,the way the story slowly unfolds and the gritty look of the whole movie, but this movie is not as good as compared because you cannot believe how stupid the Korean police can be.

The plot line is quite straightforward. A fallen-cop-turned-pimp, suspecting that two of his disappeared "girls" were actually sold by a weird client Jee(the psychopath), sends to him Mi-jin, his favourite prostitute and also a mother of an 8-year-old daughter, as bait. In the midst of torturing Mi-jin, Jee encounters unexpected intrusion, kills and flees. By sheer coincidence he bumps into the pimp who discovers his identity through his cell phone number. And all this happened in just the first half hour of the movie.

Importantly there is a lot of dark humour. The main character is incredibly dry-witted, and is a release valve for the tension in the film. As he carries the film, the acting is important, and both he and the serial killer are exceptionally good. I had never been so tense in a movie for awhile.

But no doubt this movie is one of the better Asian movies I had seen awhile, and no doubt the Korean movie industry is overshadowing the rest of the Asian countries, even Japan.

Gran Torino

Directed By: Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby)

Rating: 3.75/5

This show is reportely the last movie he will appeared in, and this flick show us how much we will miss him in the future cause he is one hell of an actor. Me personally is biased for Clint Eastwood who appeared and directed some on my favourite movies like Good, Bad and the Ugly, Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby and the list goes on and on. Cumon, even Gorillaz wrote a song about him!

Firstly the only flaw and the greatest flaw of the show is, none of the actors inside could act except except Clint Eastwood, even the American supporting cast, and the priest was particularly awful. The Asian acting skills are the worst, being real amateurish and bad stereotyping of Asian people.

This movie had lots of memorable and powerful moments where you go completely stoned, and somehow the ending the feelings was very similar to the ones I had when watching Million Dollar Baby.

But Clint, at aged 78, is still looking pretty strong and still reminding us of his Dirty Harry days, he is one of the few people who still carry a movie byself and with his on screen presence. This was a very heart-warming film in my mind throughout. The ending of the film is probably more of an ending to Eastwood's career as an actor rather than that of the movie itself. And he definely end his acting career on a high note.

Boy In The Striped Pajamus

Directed By: Mark Herman (Hope Springs)

Rating: 3.5/5

Review coming soon...

Other movies I watched on DVDs

Red Cliff 2 - 4/5

Step Up 2 - 2/5

Money Not Enough 2 - 1/5

House Bunny - 2/5

Nick & Norah: The Infinite Playlist - 3.25/5 (Kat Dennings was really cute, I'm so in love with her right now)

Latest quick ratings

Movies I Watched Recently

Revolutionary Road - 3.25/5

DVDs
Grosse Pointe Blank - 3.25/5
King and the Clown - 3/5
The Chaser - 3.5/5
The Lost City - 2/5

Scrolled further down and there is the long awaited reviews for Slumdog, Wrestler and Doubt.

Just to let you all know this blog is not dead yet. Just being realli busy(more of lazy to give a proper review). Just a quick rating of the movies i had watched recently.

Movies
Shinjuku Incident 3.5/5 stars
Confession of a Shopaholics 1.5/5
Gran Torino 3.75/5
L-O-V-E 1.5/5
Role Models 3.25/5
Watchmen 3/5

DVDs
Rachel Getting Married 4/5
Speed Racer 2/5
Kung Fu Panda 3.5/5
Step Brothers 2.5/5
Get Smart 2.5/5
Pineapple Express 3/5
You Don't Mess with the Zohans 3/5

long awaited review

Slumdog Millionaire
Directed By : Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later)
Rating 4.1/5 Stars

One of the most feel good movie I had seen in awhile. Firstly it is amazing that an English director managed to shoot a movie about India and the slums living conditions like he had lived there his whole life.

But I don't like the idea of the two leads Dev Patel and the really cute Indian girl Freida Pinto being shot to superstardom due to the success of the movie. I can say their performances is like the two worst performances in the movie. All the cast are really good, especially the young kids who played the siblings and they had never even acted their whole life. (and who knows, they may not even had watch TV b4)

But the main reason why the movie success is its feel good factor, typically of a Indian Bollywood movie with all its singing and dancing and no doubt the movie deserve all the accolades it got at the Oscars, I think only the Dark Knight even come close as competition to Slumdog, but too bad the pretendious Academy dun like superheroes.




The Wrestler
Directed By: Darrren Afronosky (Requiem of A Dream, The Fountain)
Rating 3.8/5 Stars

For a guy who had watched wrestling his whole life and slammed his brother a million times, this is a really brutally honest, emotional movie. Its really like Mickey Rouke playing himself, before his comeback in this movie, having accepting all kinds of minor roles and being in alot of trashy movies.

The supermarket scenes is one of the funniest scenes I had seen in awhile, and I just noticed jokes usually work when people are making fun at themselves. Mickey Rouke should won an Oscar this year had it not been Sean Penn amazing performance as Harvey Milk.

And I really hope Darren Afronosky makes more movies like this, stay grounded to indies and make some more character movies, maybe "The Fucker" since there are so many fuckers around nowadays or "The Arsehole". And I had alot of names in my mind suitable for the roles.


Doubt
Directed by: John Patrick Stanley
Rating:3/5 Stars


This movie give me a dozen million question marks, and it is one of the most wtf-est kind of ending that you will ever seen. And the movie really deserve it title, it gives me Doubt.

From start to end you saw the A List actors doing their job, and its makes you do alot of thinking throughout, is the priest the rapist, does the nun really knows what the priest did, the movie gives you so many questions but never an answer. If the cinema seat was mobile, I might fall off my seat at the ending.

So yes, I was entertained and I applaud the brilliant acting, but I feel more dissatisfied.

Directed by: Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, Elephant)
Rating 3.5/5 stars

Everytime there is a very gay movie, there will always come out an even gay-er movie. While you thought Brokeback Mountain was a breakthrough already for the 2 male leads kissing scenes, this movies see guy kissing every now and then. Where is the love man. I couldn't imagine how gays movies about gays will be in 20 yrs time.

This movie personally to me feels more like a art house flick. I personally not really into documentary style storytelling of movies thus even though I know this is a good mivie, i cannot find myself to love it. THe only thing I am amazed is Sean Penn acting. There is one thing between those so call acting and character actors, Sean Penn is not acting anymore, he is basically being the protaganist character himself. The way he can maintain the balance and consistency manner, you can see heart and soul of the real Harvey Milk in it. (even though i dun even know who the fark is Harvey Milk, i might know his brother Davidson)

Lastly I had to admit Gus Van Sant's direction was superb; he used the technique of blending real footage into the movie footage that we've seen before, but he managed to maintain a nice balance bewteen the 2 that dosen't make us feel like we are watching a documentary. He made everything lively and fresh while not getting in the way of the actors doing their jobs and that's pretty solid.

Directed By: David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac)
Rating: 3.75/5 Stars

THis movie is sorta of a flashback of Brad Pitt career history, you get to see his look Ah Beng blonde in Meet Joe Black, short blonde hair in Sevens Yrs in Tibet, his 40s suave look in the Ocean Trilogy. Brad get alot of applaud for his acting but I personally feel it is not he who is acting, its his makeup that is acting. If there is an award for Best Makeup (there really is), this film will sweeps all the makeup awards (this review is proudly sponsored by M.A.C)

Every other performer outperforms him in the movie especially his onscreen adopted mother Queenie who I think steals the show, every scene she appears make me almost tear, andhis partner on screen Cate Blanchett who played every age part of Daisy flawlessly, you could believe her when she still a innocent looking teenage girl (she's actually hitting the big 40 this yr), as the talented graceful dancer in her rebellious 20s, even the 60s when she is taking care of the already baby Benjamin, thats really some solid acting.

I like the way Benjamin Button was born as a old, and grow up living with the old, seeing old people die, having old people as his best friends, this slowly leads the most difficult part of his life, even when he looks like he is in his 20s or 30s, he is still a old man inside his heart, and that shows when he couldn't understand Daisy having so much fun at the party, he had never been to a party.

But the biggest thing that bugs me most about the film is the thing at the core: the relationship between Daisy and Benjamin. It misses something very, very, important: why they fell in love in the first place. It never really explains, you could understand why Brad fall in love with Tilda Swinton Elizabeth, having share their lives and stories waiting for each other every night at the lobby, but why Daisy, she is just another girl in his "childhood".

And i especially hate the montage part b4 Daisy is get knocked by a car, the what if the woman nv buy coffee, and the man nv tie shoelaces Daisy wouldn't have being knocked down. It spoils the whole mood of the movie for me, how the hell will Benjamin know a man in the street was tying a shoelaces.

Nevertheless this movie is good, the whole direction sets up the mood perfectly, the technically aspects really good too, but one thing for this movie, it will never be a great.

Directed By: John Patrick Stanley

Rating 3/5 stars

Review coming soon....

Summarise my December

A very bad movie month for December for me, all the movies i had watch had not meet my expectations at all, not even close. Though i had miss several movies like the highly shot to fame Twilight (which I bet is as corny as a corn) and the Visitor. January and Febuary is definely the month for movie lovers, as Oscar season is approaching all the great movies are coming to our theatres, watch out especially for Rachel Getting Married starring the very chio ANne Hathaway, Milk aka Sean Penn being gay movie, The Reader, The Wrestler, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamus, Curious Case Of Benjamin Button and the long awaited SLumdog Millionaire. god bless me tt i got time to catch all the movies before Oscar.

So here come some short reviews of the movies I had watch in Dec.


Australia
Rating 2.5/5 Stars
Directed By: Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge, Romeo & Juliet)

THis movie can might as well called Sweden, Czechoslovakia or Yishun and it don't even matter to me. THe movie plot had nothing much to do with the title at all. Although the movie is beautifully shot (Every frame can be a piece of art), but the visuals are too overly posturize and look extremly fake. The CGs must be one of the fakest one i had seen for a while for a big production like this.

THe plot is the worse, everything seems fake and unrealistic, the script tried to be about a lot of things but ends up being about nothing. There is no real direction to the story from the start to the end. I feel the director shot the first part of the movie planning to make a romance, and wake up the next day and saw a black guy being fucked by a white thinking, fuck this world sucks I should do something about it today, I should make a drama about racism. Then he wakes up another day reading about the terroism attack in Mumbai, fuck I should tell a story about stopping a war. I should make a war movie today.

ANd damn, i end up dunno what i am watching


Yes Man
Rating:2/5 Stars
Directed By: Peyton Reed (Bring it On, The Break-Up)

JIm Carrey used to be really funny without trying hard, nowadays he tried to hard to be funny and end up being lame. ANd this is the one word I will describe this movie, LAME. THe movie is just so annoyingly stupid that it makes me feel stupid watching it. There are alot of redundant scenes that should be just cut out, watching a comedy that is not funny is untolerable, the 104 mins in it feels like 3 hrs. Whenever I thought the movie is going to end , it tries to give me a even lamer joke.

And weirdly though is the movies starring Zooey Deschanel, I think she is really cute, quirky and quite a good actress and I had noticed her since she starred in the cutsy Will Ferrell flick ELF, but every movies she is in recently tends to sucks like the suckiest movie of the year The Happening, Bridge to Terabithia and Failure To Launch.


BOLT
Rating: 2.75/5 Stars
Directed By: Byron Howard, Chris Williams

Everybody tells me how good this is before i watched it giving me so much expectations. THis stories tell us never give too much expectation for something or you will often end up being disappointed. I felt like Bolt was a wonderful children's movie, but left nothing for adults to be entertained by.THe characters may be cute but I think the story and characters are unoriginal and seems to have read and seen it somewhere b4 especially the hamster Rhino and the talking pigeons.

ANd i really not into the old school Disney cartoons with alot of goosebump songs thats why the only Pixar film i didn't like is Cars. But nevertheless this is still a alright family film to bring your children to.

Full review coming soon (when i am zo-boing)

Cape No. 7 - 3/5 Stars

Quantum of Solace - 2.75/5 Stars

Reviews

Directed By: Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Constant Gardener)
Starring: Julianne Morre, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover, Gael Garcia Bernal & Alice Braga
Rating: 4/5

Based on a Nobel winning Novel, this movie had been slammed by crtics critically around the world due to its sensitive issues with human morales and especially for portraying blind people comparing them to "monsters".

This movie ranked in my Top 10 most "awkward and uneasy movies to watch on a first date" ranking table which consisted of Requiem of A Dream, The Machinist, Oldboy and The nortorius Brown Bunny. The rape scene in the movie will especially make u finched and feeling uneasy throughout the movie.

I would describe this movie as a zombie movie like I am Legend and 28 Days Later, just that this time the zombies are real humans who has turned blind. Interestingly all the characters in the movies had no names, their character are namely known as "The Doctor", "The Doctor Wife", "Man of Ward 1 #4" and "King of Ward 3" which I think is clever showing what a "blind world" is like. Using white instead of the usual black in a world of darkness was a fresh idea which works well in the ending especially when Julianne Moore character look up the sky full of white thinking if she has turned blind.

But the main point of this drama is showing us the ugly sides of humanity to us "norms" how extreme situations and fighting for survival bring out the worst of us humans. The movie is being slammed for portraying blind people badly but I think it is more of showing how ugly and disgusted humans can be when they are left in a situation like this. An eg. maybe you might think you are a really good person who loves your family, your friends and even your dog. But when left in a do or die desperate time of choices would you not betray your family and friends and even kill your dog for food?

But this movie had it loopholes and dosen't make sense logics. Julianne Moore character as the only person who can see, why did she allow herself to be manipulated by the bastards and allow herself and the other women to be raped and tortured when she clearly had the advantage of sight?

Though this is still a really great movie i think that every humans should watch.


Directed By: Ethan Coen and Joel Coen (Fargo, No Country For Old Man)
Starring: Frances McDormand, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton and John Malkovich
Rating: 3.5/5

Just to let you all know please do not miss the 5 mins of this movie or you will be like me trying to figure out throughout the movie how the characters interlinked and the main plot of the story.

This is a really smart movie trying to tell us how dumb human can be, even the FBIs. Smartly intervine linkage of the characters, which causes like a chain reaction in the way the movie moves. But you need to really pay attention what is going on.

This movie is only alright to me as the Coens had done similar movies and done better before like The Big Lebowski and O Brother where Art Thou. But I thought the characters were really fun especially for George and Brad.

How I wish I can get to act Brad Pitt character...


Directed By: Ben Stiller (Zoolander, Cable Guy)
Starring: Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr, Jack Black
Rating:3.75/5

This movie gotta be the biggest budget comedy ever. And for playing a war movie in a movie, it might even exceed the cost of an actual war movie.

The dialogues are really hilarious, but you must be a really big movie fan to know what are the jokes about, joking about Hollywood, acting jargons, character acting and movies comparisons with the Rain Man and Forrest Gump.

The opening of the movie with 3 movie trailer and a drink commercial, especially the trailer starring Robert Downey and Tobey Maguire playing gay priests was hilarious. The main 3 characters parody the 3 main types of actors in Hollywood, the guy who acted in blockbuster movies who actually can't act (Ben Stiller), the guy that acted in stupid comedies and fart movies joke (Jack Black), and the last guy who will goes through all sorts of thing to be in the character portray who also happens to wins all sorts of awards (Robert D Jr.)

The actions and explosives scenes were really cowabunga! Stunning actions which can even put Saving Private Ryan or Apocalyse Now to shame. The first 10 mins of the movies can be as good as any top 100 movies of all time. The last half hour dialogue of the movies was really funny and smart, the problem is with the middle of the movie. The jokes dosen't make you laugh and makes no sense.

The cameos in this movies are alright only too. People had raves about how funny Tom Cruise is inside as the money loving producer who only caresa about making money. I actually find it funny while watching too, but to think back, what if this guy isn't Tom Cruise and just some unknown guy, we find it funny only because Tom Cruise play dumb.

Robert Downey Jr. I think is the only funny guy and standout in the movie, I think he can even win a Oscar for this but we all know the Academy don't watch comedies. Everything this guy has recently appeared in is great. I am beginning to love this guy.


Directed By: Guy Ritchie (Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch)
Starring: Gerald Butler, Thandie Newton, Tom Wilkinson
Rating: 3.25/5

After a recent list of flops, Guy Ritchie goes back what he do best, movies about crimes, sex and drugs. ANd something new Rock n Roll! Actually its a story of sex, thugs and rock n roll to be exact.

Friends around me had been recommending this movie to me, but if you had watched Snatch and Lock Stock before, the 2 will makes this movie looks bad. After starting nicely with his trademark quickpans and quick cuts,t he first 1 hour of the movie was a bore in the ass. The performance are cool but the dialogues wasn't and dosen't talk sense (although usually his movie dosen't talk sense too), leading the story no where. It started to get really funny when Gerald Butler and his Co. got chased and that was when I started to realise I was watching a comedy. It ended quite alright but the twist dosen't even feel like a twist at all.

And also the shortest sex scene in movie history might be the greatest sex scene of all, blink and you might just missed it.











AND LASTLY

THE COFFIN which I don't even want to bother reviewing cause it sucks to the core. I will still give it a rating though. 0.75/5