Review: Insomnia (2002)

Besides 'Dark City', I've obtained the original 'Insomnia' DVD from my local video shop's bargain bin lately. After completing 'Insomnia' recently, I've done watching all the major works of director Christopher Nolan by far, which includes 'The Prestige', 'Batman Begins', and 'Memento'. I wanted to watch his older works, 'Following' and 'Doodlebug', but they are hard to find nowadays (plus, I'm from Malaysia, a country which has limited movies in the stores.. Damn).

I really enjoyed 'Insomnia' very much considering Nolan as one of my favorite movie directors, because you can't go wrong with his style. 'Insomnia' stays true to his style indeed, with the heavy usage of flashbacks. Also, his movies often deal with the human emotion/conflicts. In 'Insomnia', probably the emotion is guilt, felt by the main characters, played by Al Pacino and Robin Williams. As usual, both of the stars have brought top-notch performances on-screen, and also supported by Hilary Swank's great acting. There are a few scenes which are quite packed with suspense, and it really made my heart-beat go really fast. Thrilling, I should say. Superb acting and superb plot, what could go wrong with it? The ending basically wraps up everything well, and plus, I got another deja-vu at the end. Just pay attention to what the character says at the last scene (The Machinist, anyone? =)).

(4.5 candies out of 5)

Review: Pathfinder

Without any news or proper trailers seen beforehand in local cinemas, suddenly there was an unheard movie called 'Pathfinder' which popped up not too long ago. After doing some googling, we found out that it is truly a movie in which you might have missed out since there are no known popular and mainstream actors and actresses in it. But since the given storyline was appealing and interesting (Vikings!!), so why not give it a go?

My conclusion: 'Pathfinder' is purely an action movie which satisfies those who hunger for it, and not forgetting the blood and gore too. Although the story is not very nice, and there are not much of lines and script (there's only conversations and talking for the important scenes), but the action sequences are quite intense. I really like how they've depicted the Vikings as very terrifying and brutal warriors, with the cool costumes. My friends are saying that the film reminds them of 'Conan the Barbarian'. My déjà vu came when one of the scenes involves the Protagonist leading the band of vikings on top of the icy surface of the frozen lake, which reminded me of a similar scene from 'King Arthur'. You should know what happens next. The movie is quiet predictable and it's presents us with nothing special, and that includes the ending as well. But it's worth a go if you want to watch a film which you can leave the brains outside, and thus enjoying the eye candies. No thinking required.


Ratings: 3 out of 5

Cursing the Golden Flower

After many complaints (and cursing) on the Cantonese dubbed version of "Curse of the Golden Flower", Buena Vista Columbia Tristar will be releasing the original Mandarin version exclusively at GSC Mid Valley, GSC 1 Utama (New Wing), GSC Berjaya Times Square, GSC Gurney Plaza and GSC Queensbay Mall this Thursday (Jan 25), according to Cinema Online. I'm not sure whether they have seen my blog post on this issue, but it sure pays off if you start complaining when you're not satisfied with any services. After all, customer satisfaction is important right?

So, would you go through "The Curse" one more time?

Thanks also to Terry for the info.

Review: Love Conquers All

If you like the local movie productions, and you're an avid art movie-goer, 'Love Conquers All' should be your cup of tea with no doubt. 'Love' is a film by local director Tan Chui Mui, which I happen to know before. We took theatre/acting class back in our university days in MMU, under the tutelage of Mr. Mano Maniam. Being an avid theatre-goer but not entirely a big fan of art shows, I went to watch this show with the mindset that it would be similar to 'Rain Dogs' in terms of art direction.

The result? Yes, it is really an art film true to it's nature. There is a very basic storyline, a subplot, variety of characters and settings. In my opinion, I wouldn't say that I like the sets of the movie (location shots, e.g. the beach, rooftop of house) too much. Also, I find that sometimes certain shots (filming angles) were a little overused, such as the back of the characters while they were walking somewhere, or the motorcycle riding shots.

On the more positive side, I love the way how Mui used sounds to blend with certain scenes (e.g. rain drops, birds singing in the morning). Also, the usage of a subplot (the little girl's 'love story') to go parallel with the main story is quite interesting.

'Love' is indeed an art film which stays true to it's calling.

(3 out of 5)

Link:
Tan Chui Mui's Blog (In mandarin)

Review: Sinking of Japan (Nihon chinbotsu)

Sinking of Japan, or Nihon chinbotsu, is a Japanese made natural disaster themed film in which the title suggests, is about the sinking of the whole island of Japan following a series of on going earthquakes. Having watched so many disaster genre films since 'Twister' to 'The Day After Tomorrow', we can't help but to have the knowledge and ability to predict what's going to happen next in every scene in this movie. The basis of the story is quite interesting and new, and the execution of the scenes and the special effects are pretty good. But at times I felt that there would be more need to focus and develop on more other characters, besides the few featured characters in the show (such as the loving couples, the scientist & lady minister). There is enough emotional drama between characters, but I think they should have more scenes and images on the whole natural disaster effects. Other than that, the whole show is enjoyable if you don't put too high expectations on it.

(3 out of 5)

Review: Days of Glory (Indigènes)

Days of Glory (Indigènes) is a true story about World War II's forgotten heroes, North African men whom were enlisted in the French Army to liberate France from Nazi oppression. This is partly a war drama, and also partly an art film. The whole film does not focus much on the combat action in the war, but more on the other things which revolve around it (e.g. lives of the soldiers, people) though there is enough action going around to satisfy those who like combat scenes. There is also a reason why I label this as an art film, because there are many scenes which portray that (e.g. a soldier helps a villager to milk a cow). Generally, the actors gave strong performances in their roles as soldiers who are in a foreign land fighting for a foreign country, and also the hardships that they face alongside the war (e.g. racism amongst them). At the end of the show, it gives us a very strong and touching scene about the film's true message, the very core issue which it wants to tackle. I won't raise the issues here, but you can read about it in this site. I would recommend this show to anyone who likes to watch foreign movies in general.

(3.5 out of 5)

Rename This!

Have you seen 'Super Sapiens' already? Super what, you ask? If you didn't know, the 'Hellboy' movie title was renamed for the Malaysia distribution last time when it was shown in cinemas, for some reasons which I don't know. Is the title offensive?

And for some reasons, the latest upcoming film opening in local theatres, 'Chaos' (starring Jason Statham, Ryan Philippe and Wesley Snipes) was also renamed to 'Hit & Blast' in Malaysian cinemas. It's no wonder that I can't find any information on this movie when I tried to google for 'Hit & Blast' on the net, except that it shows the GSC web site info on the movie.





It's a little confusing sometimes when they change film titles.

Review: Dark City (1998)

'Dark City' was a 1998 science fiction film directed and produced by Alex Proyas, the same guy who did 'The Crow' and the more famous 'I, Robot'. I managed to pick this film up from the bargain bin from the local video shop, since I've not watched this yet and heard good things about it. I won't reveal the premise or the summary of the film's story here (go google it yourself, no spoilers here). It's basically a sci-fi thriller set in a fictional unknown city where there is no daylight, which is why it's called 'Dark City' (duh).

Throughout the whole film, all I can say that I was pretty amazed at this little known film. It didn't really make it big like other sci-fi flicks such as 'The Matrix', but I would label it as a great film which is little known by most people. The acting was superb, and the whole set of the film was great too. I didn't know about this little trivia that the same sets from 'Dark City', the rooftops, buildings and other sets were used in 'The Matrix'. The storyline does not disappoint too, with a great ending. The scenes are quite similar to 'The Matrix', so don't be surprised if you get a lot of deja vu here and there.

This movie cannot be considered a 'B-grade', but it can't be hailed as a legend in my opinion. But with no doubt, 'Dark City' sets a big standard for all sci-fi/noir movies alike.

Sometimes there are a lot of good films which ends up in the bargain bin, so why not pick it up today and enjoy it?

(4 out of 5 candies)

Best Eye Candy Award of 2006

Here, I present to you the 'Best Eye Candy Award' of 2006, given to the film which has the best eye candy scene in a movie. What it means is that it has the best eye popping, extra-ordinary, jaw dropping special effects scene in a show. Mind you, 'eye candy' here don't refer to hot chicks.

What are the examples of eye candies here? The bullet-time scene in 'The Matrix' is one of the most evident ones.

The award goes to:



V For Vendetta's bullet-time knife throwing scene at the end of the show. The Wachowski Brothers has done it again with a breath-taking eye candy moment. Actually the true highlight of the show is the interesting storyline itself, but this is an extra present for those who seek more.

Note: For 2005, the movie 'Sin City' would have won my 'Eye Candy' award, if I had seen it earlier. The whole movie itself is an eye candy, with ground breaking visuals never seen before.

Review: The Guardian

'The Guardian' is the typical "seen it & done it" show, which you can predict what would happen at the end of the movie. The whole premise of the show is nothing new and interesting. It's one of those mentor-protégé relationship films, and nothing surprises you at all throughout the whole show. The entire movie is mainly a tribute to the US Coast Guard, which has that theme throughout the whole movie.

In terms of performances, Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher are quite a good team in portraying their teacher-student roles. The only bad thing about the show is the draggy scenes in the middle part of the movie, which are quite typical. In fact, the whole show feels like a TV series drama. But anyway, I like the idea of the life of the US Coast Guard themed movie, because I think by far we have not seen any shows made for that kind of theme (correct me if I'm wrong) from Hollywood. It's kind of a good entry, but not strong enough to be made into the all time favorites. I would recommend this show to anyone, but don't put too high hopes on it.

My Score: (3 out of 5)

Review: Night at the Museum

'Night at the Museum' is one of those movies which doesn't surprise you too much. It is one of those films which you might have seen before last time, where there are things which are not suppose to be there, appearing around you (the 'Jumanji' Déjà vu). In this case, animals and people from the past come alive in the museum and wreck havoc. You might have seen the trailer for this movie before and are not impressed by it. But to a certain extent, 'Night' doesn't seem to disappoint me entirely but in fact, I felt that it was quite good. The movie actually has a storyline, character development and plot twist near the end. There are a wide variety of interesting characters of different sizes (literally big and tiny), which blend in quite well into the movie.

Also, you need to watch this with a group of friends, so that you can maximize the laughter and enjoyment of the show. This is not a movie to watch if you're alone.

My Score: (3.5 out of 5)

Review: Curse of the Golden Flower

The formula for a grand epic Chinese movie: It has to be done by famous director who has directed similar movies before (preferably with sword fighting elements), check that. Zhang Yimou is more than qualified. It has to have a very good and stylish wardrobe design with fascinating and luscious colors, check (I won't comment on the issue of the 'overexposed flesh' in the movie). Got good cast? Check. Chow Yun-Fat and Gong Li are not too bad. Got sword fighting scenes? Check that too. But in this movie, it's not really sufficient for movie-goers. Too bad, but I'd wish there are more action sequences with the swords. You can go on and on with the checklist, but personally I'd like to think that 'Curse of the Golden Flower' is not an 'epic' movie to add up to my list of favorites.

The only weakness which I can see here is the supporting actors, Jay Chou and Ye Liu. I did not like their performances as much as Chow Yun-Fat and Gong Li, they were not able to bring up their supporting roles, as well as the main actors. As mentioned above, the sword fights aren't enough. Although they tried to cook up a massive battle scene, ala Troy or LOTR style, but it failed because I believe that the CGI is not really done well enough for it.

Other than that, I believe that still, the director stayed true to his style. It's still a very stylish movie with grand scenes, beautiful set designs and an acceptable storyline. Probably not on par with 'Hero', but it still enjoyable.

My Score: (2.5 out of 5)

Resolution 2007: More Reviews

If you have followed my blog all the while, you would have noticed that I've kept writing previews or general views on movies, except for movie reviews. I've always been too busy or too lazy to write movie reviews, because I'm actually not that good in writing stuff. It takes a while for me to process the whole movie to get thoughts and views about it. But anyways, I think it's time for me to try to write more reviews for this year, for the sake of the very few readers which I know who dig into this blog (thanks to RSS subscription). I think generally it shouldn't be too hard to write movie reviews if the follow the guidelines below.

First thing, you have to be very frank in your opinions, not afraid of pointing out the weakness of the movie and also the strengths of it. Of course, different people will have differing tastes so they might like or dislike your views on the show.

Second thing about writing movie reviews is that you just got to keep is super simple (K.I.S.S.). One of best movie reviewers I usually like to read (which has almost the same taste as mine) is Dean Kish from Movie-List. I actually enjoy his reviews because they are very simple and straight forward. I don't really go for big time reviewers like Eberts, because of his taste. But Dean doesn't really do a lot of reviews, mostly what he does are posting of latest movie trailers.

Here's to a good year of good movies!