Category: Movie Reviews

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Movie Reviews Romance

The Painted Veil – Redemption And Unexpected Grace In An Unlikely Place

Those who have read the book written by W. Somerset Maugham published in 1925 will immediately realise the differences between the movie adaptation and the original novel. The character development of the supposed to be shallow, poorly educated Kitty is very much compressed and the conclusion is missing from the adaptation. The novel portrays the spiritual journey of a woman while the adaptation evens out the focus among Kitty (Naomi Watts) and the passionate, intellectual bacteriologist Walter Fane (Edward Norto), someone whom Kitty married not of love. The movie also manages to bring out the beautiful backdrop of China, something the novel is lack of. It is a trade-off in many ways and both the novel and the movie adaptation are enjoyable in their own ways.

Shortly after the couple arrived in Shanghai (it was Hong Kong in the original novel), Kitty has an affair with a polished, married British official (Liev Shrieber) and as a punishment to either the doctor Walter himself or to his wife or to both (up to your own interpretation), Walter has volunteered to station at the mountain village of Mei-tan-fu that was ravaged by the deadly cholera epidemic bringing along his wife Kitty with him.

Though the plot may not leave a lasting impression, the drama is beautifully acted out by the leading actor and actress Edward Norton and Naomi Watts. The movie captures the landscape, the people, and the culture of the China well. Can a woman falls in love with a man with good virtue, I believe, is one of the movie’s themes.

A 2 hours long of romance and drama is worth watching for those who like this movie genre. For those who are interested in the title of the novel, many believe that it is borrowed from Shelley’s famous sonnet that begins with the lines Lift not the painted veil which those who live call life.

Related Sites: The Painted Veil Official Film Site and Lift not the Painted Veil Which Those Who Live

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Fantasy & Sci-fi Movie Reviews

Pan’s Labyrinth – A Fantasy Movie? War? Or Horror?

I had a sudden last minute urge to catch a movie and Cynthia suggested Pan’s Labyrinth. First shock, the poster looks like a horror movie and Cynthia doesn’t watch horror movies (this poster I chose for my site is one of the “better” ones). Second shock, I found out that it is a fantasy movie instead and she wants to watch fantasy? When we made our way into the theater, Cynthia turned to me and said: oh, by the way, this is a foreign movie. I was like … huh? I needed to read subtitles? Shortly after, I overheard someone next to us mentioned that this movie is 2 hours long. Great … a foreign 2 hours long fantasy movie with a plot that I had no clue about. Cynthia kept reassuring me that it is a highly rated movie.

Pan’s Labyrinth has three different dimensions. Set in Spain 1940s, the reality dimension that tells a story of a civil war. The fantasy dimension that tells a story of Ofélia’s journey in solving 3 quests given by Pan, a magical and demonic creature, to gain her immortality as the princess of the underworld (I felt like watching a role-playing fantasy computer game at some points). And there is a third (brilliant) dimension that weaves a story between this two dimensions mixing reality with fantasy bringing forth a contrast of good and evil. It is one of those movies that will get you thinking in the end.

You will be in for a surprise if you think that Pan’s Labyrinth is a fantasy movies for children. It surely has enough blood, gunshots, and knife wounds that kept me cringing throughout the show. The demonic side of the fantasy world does have its mildly scary moments. At some points, I did feel like watching a horror movie instead.

Pan’s Labyrinth has an overwhelming positive rating from throughout the world. Perhaps one of the highest I have seen in Metacritics so far.

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Drama Movie Reviews

Blood Diamond – Intensity With Great Performance

I once worked with an African who shared with me some of Africa’s unique culture. He has probably told me a lot more than I wished to know such as people getting shot inside their cars at the traffic lights. Movies portray a slice of reality and I know very little about Africa besides the seemingly endless civil wars between warlords and tons of humanitarian aid opportunities (AIDS, child rapes, refugees, etc.). As I typed this review, Somalia declares state of emergency for 3 months.

The story of “Blood Diamond” is set in 1990s Sierra Leone when diamonds had to be smuggled out of this conflict zone and into neighbouring countries in order to be sold to the rest of the world (part of a treaty not to buy diamonds from conflict zones). The money from the diamond sales in turn funded the military in Sierra Leone.

Inside a prison, an ex-mercenary from Zimbabwe, Danny Archer (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), met with a Mende fisherman Solomon Vandy (played by Djimon Hounsou). Their paths intertwined and from then on, shared the same quest of recovering a rare pink diamond.

“Blood Diamond” is Leonardo DiCaprio’s second movie to be nominated for this coming Oscar (first one being “The Departed”). His performance is outstanding in “Blood Diamond”. His character played a wide range of emotions from a risk taker and an ex-mercenary motivated by greed to displaying his good nature when situations called for and to someone vulnerable recalling his painful childhood stories (nearly got me shed a tear in that scene). Besides the many facets of emotions, Leonardo switched different accents according to the plot. I enjoyed every moment he acted.

What makes this movie so enjoyable to watch is that the actors are of the same calibre. Jennifer Connelly – Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actress – who played a journalist paired up well with Leonardo. The African actor Djimon Hounsou (who won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in “Blood Diamond”) surprised me the most. He sweat and he teared and he played well as a father who would stop at nothing to be united with his family.

Combine all these outstanding performance and a simple yet tight plot with some of the inspiring scenery that can only come from Africa (the rather backward cities contrast with the beautiful jungle and the sea-side shots) is a 140 minutes long movie that does not have a dull moment.

“Blood Diamond” does come with a violence rating. Some of the scenes can be disturbing especially the opening scene when a village of people were massacred by the rebels. The violence did not stop there and continued as the plot unfold. I think towards the end, I was quite used to it and did not cringe that much. Also, seeing how children being brainwashed to learn how to fight with guns can be disturbing to some as well. I don’t think it is an exaggeration but rather a highlight of reality in some regions of Africa.

Overall, I enjoyed “Blood Diamond” and hope that Leonardo DiCaprio will bag the Oscar this year. And by the way, I don’t think I will see diamonds the same way as before.

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Documentary Movie Reviews

Fast Food Nation – A Humanistic View In A Relatively Inhumane Setting

When I was young, back in Hong Kong, I used to watch my mother making fish balls. My mother would first choose the fresh fish from the wet market, bring it home, painstakingly remove the bones, marinate the meat, put it into a blender, and to make it into fish balls, she would place a serving of the paste into her palm, squeeze out the paste, and scoop it up with a spoon. It took ages to make, tasted relatively fishy, and at times I could still feel the bone fragments. Though fish balls made this way is nutritious, I would be more than happy just to grab those ready made fish balls from the supermarket if I was to cook fish ball noodle these days (before I watched this movie that is).

In a way, we all embrace the fast food culture. We value convenience and the taste of our food more than its intrinsic nutrition value. We hardly have time to think about what goes into the processed food we eat daily. “Fast Food Nation” comprises of short stories that portray the different aspects of a particular food business of turning living cattle into the burgers on our tables – a process that not many of us care to know.

My movies buddy Tong Kiat and Cynthia both have a very different view of the movie from mine. I like this movie but it doesn’t work for them. “Fast Food Nation” is not a documentary movie like “Super Size Me” nor it is a fight against a specific industry with witty script like “Thank You For Smoking”. It is a humanistic view of the culture we have and is presented in short stories that have no satisfying resolution. Co-written and directed by Richard Linklater (“Before Sunrise” and “Before Sunset” … notice that both movies have no satisfying resolution either), the script does have its brilliant moments (“Right now, I can’t think of anything more patriotic than violating the Patriot Act“) and the transition between stories is smooth. I personally love Ethan Hawke’s performance that reminded me of his “Before Sunrise” and “Before Sunset”. He is such an engaging conversationalist. Bruce Willis’s star appearance was a surprise to me (and subsequently Avril Lavigne too though her acting was less impressive) and I just love his cool acting. As he bit into a juicy burger that he knew somewhere between the process of turning cattle into pate, a fair amount of manure found its way into the burger, Bruce Willis delivered such a cool speech on why we have to make sure that the pate is cooked and just don’t fight the system. The Mexican counterparts have acted their parts well too. To me, those heart warming stories played by the Mexicans are the glue of this movie.

Fast food restaurant executives brainstorming on their next big hit, a Vice President of the fast food restaurant sent to investigate why so much manure found its way into the burger’s pate, a group of Mexicans crossed the border illegally to find a better life working in US abide being exploited in many ways, a young cashier whose dream was beyond her counter, a food packing factory that was portrayed inhuman towards both cattle as well as its Mexican employees, and a group of high school activists that believed in freeing the cattle was a first step to raise awareness on the environment hazard posted by the cattle ranches – all of which are the ingredients of “Fast Fast Nation” presented in an intertwined fashion.

There may not be a lot of money and sex in this movie, but there are certainly lots of blood in it (money, sex, and blood – the key success of movies nowadays). Be prepared for the final scene. It is gruesome. After watching “Fast Food Nation”, I personally have made an effort to stay away from processed food. I guess I have set down what I like about this movie and I also would like to point out that there are others that don’t. This movie has a mixed review so do watch it with an opened mind if you so wish to.

Categories
Documentary Movie Reviews

Borat – You Either Love It Or Hate It

If indeed true that this is a documentary film made with real people in real situations, I really pity some of the people who were caught in this one big giant reality TV series in the expense of the audience’s laughter. Borat, played by Sacha Baron Cohen, left his home country Kazakhstan traveled into America hoping to learn the American culture that is going to benefit Kazakhstan. I can buy that plot. What the movie is tying to achieve is to bring out American’s racism, anti-Semitism, sexism, and the mentality that they are number one in everything. That I can also accept. It is the execution that at times I found it hard to watch.

Don’t get me wrong. I did laugh very hard almost throughout the show. But when the storyline switched from a series of interviews to cover various topics such as American’s humour and feminism into Borat wanting to travel all the way from New York to California in order to meet and marry Pamela Andersen after watching her acting in Bay-watch at his hotel room, that I found it senseless and hard to believe. In keeping up with the tempo, the practical jokes have gotten cruder and cruder. You will see Borat entered into an antique shop that sold items related to American heritage and he accidentally tripped himself destroying a room full of antiques. You will see Borat carrying a plastic bag of feces out from the restroom asking the hostess of a high society what to do with it (I was surprised to see that in the end credit, it was mentioned who that belongs to). You will see Borat’s face buried underneath a big hairy fat naked man’s ass – Borat’s co-actor – and both of them run out of the hotel room naked crashed into a company function continued the fight on stage till both of them were taken down by the security guards (What are they trying to say except that they have balls to go naked in public and make a fool out of themselves?). And you will see many more worse than this.

I can’t help but ask myself what some of these scenes really trying to say. Shall I be, for instance, laughing to Borat’s success in humiliating hundreds of real people to bring out certain points, if any, or shall I feel pity for those innocent people that are portrait unfairly on a big screen? I don’t know. What I know is that this movie has really gotten high ratings across many sources and the general response is that you either love this or hate this movie. Borat could be one of the funnest shows (and pretty original too) I have seen but I feel awkward watching it.

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Foreign Movie Reviews

Eye Wide Opened for Curse of the Golden Flower

Days ago, I asked one of my friends to recommend a movie to watch over Live Messenger and her immediate response was Curse of the Golden Flower and have myself a “boobs treat”. Well, I have forgotten the exact phrase but it was something to that extend. Last weekend, I suggested this movie to my buddy TK and after I made the booking, he suggested to meet half an hour earlier than usual. I asked why and his reply was: we don’t want to miss Gong Li’s boobs, do we? Gasp! I was actually intrigued by the storyline as it seems to contain the trademarks of Chinese movies. When I told that to Cynthia while she was wearing a cosmetic mask, she tried very hard not to laugh (and she did burst out laughing). I know, you readers are probably laughing in disbelief too but I wanted to watch this movies because of the storyline and not the … erm … boobs.

I immediately understood people’s reaction to the movie at the opening scene. Imagine yourself in one of the biggest Cathay theaters with a huge screen and all you see is a sea of palace maids bearing almost half of their boobs. Have I seen that many boobs in my life before? Probably not.

Boobs aside, this movie has it highs and lows. The setting is extravagant and the entire movie is so colourful, especially the colour gold. Be it as hundreds of actors on the screen or just a few of them serving tea or following the royal family, all the actions were sychronised. Not a sense of disorder. You can easily sit back, enjoy this majestic movie, and walk out of the theater feeling satisfied by this 45 million dollars production – most expensive Chinese film to date.

But I can’t. The plot is too simplistic and at times, flawed. I wish I have read the synopsis carefully and some of the Chinese write-ups from the Internet before watching this movie. That way, at least I wouldn’t feel that confused. Perhaps it is because I relied on the subtitles to understand the movie and the white subtitles set against a background that was mostly gold in colour just didn’t work out for me.

Gong Li and Chow Yun Fat’s acting was great. They played out their characters well. It was Jay Chow’s acting that is in question. A few scene, Jay Chow has to act side by side with Gong Li and it was most obvious that he just didn’t cut it at all. I sense that the cameraman tried very hard to minimise his exposure and in the theater, the audience laughed whenever Jay Chow acted those emotional dramatic scenes. His battle scene was watchable but that is not exactly acting, is it?

The historical inaccuracies may not go well with some of you though I can easily look pass that. Perhaps my imagination tends to go wild. At one point, when I watched Prince Jai (Jay Chow) in full silver armor practicing sword with the Emperor (Chow Yun Fat) in golden armor, I swear I felt like watching a sci-fi movie.

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Foreign Movie Reviews

YUI – A Young Japanese Artist To Look Out For

I know I have been a movie-craze/Japanese-craze lately but this is a great blog entry full of [virtual] goodies. I have even linked up two great video clips from YouTube. Just stay with me for a minute or two.

Last weekend, running out of shows to watch, I have decided to catch an Asian movie. So I gave Cynthia a choice of either a horror movie or a tears-jerking one. Need not to say, though she likes neither, she picked “Midnight Sun” as she can’t take horror movie at all (evil me, I know).

“Midnight Sun”’s plot has the typical Japanese/Korean template with Kaoru Amane (played by Yui) having a rare disease (called XP) – an example of how pop-culture raises awareness – that forced her to stay away from the sun. Not able to live a normal life, Kaoru spent the night time playing her music on the street. The story began with her having a crush with a boy who stopped by the bus-stop opposite her house every morning on the way to his surfing by the beach. Well, I am sure by now you know where the story goes from here.

This movie is actually pretty artistic. There were many moments with no dialog, just acting or filming of scenery. The overall acting was good (especially Kaoru’s boyfriend and her father). Now, back to the subject of this blog, from the moment Kaoru opened her guitar case, to the moment she performed, I was pleasantly surprised by her acting. And when she was trying out different chords humming the melody, I was like: Wow! That is how I write my songs! You are probably waiting for the punch line right? When the end credit was shown, all the three songs featured in the movie are written – both music and lyrics – by Yui herself. When I returned home and did some research, she was from the Indie music background and does have an album. No wonder the acting was so convincing.

I have found the music video of the titled song from YouTube. Not only do you get to appreciate what her music is like, but also get to see the highlights of the movie. For those who are frustrated with the Japanese lyrics, there is an English translation here.

You want more, ya? I have found a live performance of Yui. I tried to get her album from HMV Singapore but it is out-of-stock and the order processing time will be 4 to 6 weeks. Worst of all, it costs S$72. When I typed in HMV.com.sg, I was actually directed to its Hong Kong website and it’s much cheaper to buy her CD there.

Categories
Documentary Movie Reviews

“Flags Of Our Fathers” Paved The Way for “Letters From Iwo Jima”

Centered to DreamWorks Picture’s “Flag Of Our Fathers”, directed by Clint Eastwod, is that one photo that was taken when five Marines and one Navy Corpsman raised the US flag on Mount Suribachi during World War II. The battle of Iwo Jima was violent when Americans first landed on the Japanese soil. Back in the America, the government was trying hard to sell bonds in order the fund the war without much success. The nation was weary of the war and the people was in need of hope. Then comes the tag line of the movie – a single shot can end the war.

It was that one single photo shot that inspired and gave hope to the Americans back then. Overnight, the identified flag raisers – who were not the first group that ventured up the hill without knowing how many Japanese troops were left and raised the flag – have become heroes. The three survivors were recalled back to America in the mist of the battle and to fight a different kind of war – to raise the billions of dollars needed to end the war.

From the documentary perspective, I believe that Clint Eastwood has done a marvelous work in reproducing the scenes based on the pictures taken during the war and the history as documented. The war scenes were realistic and my stomach churned every time when someone or something was shot down. That is the better half of the movie that I enjoyed watching. The drama half of the movie, I am not so sure.

Back in America, the three flag raisers struggled with the concept of heroism. Are they, the characters in a picture, the heroes of the war or should those who fought and perished be the ones? Throughout this story telling mode, there were lots of flashbacks to the battlefield. At times could be quite confusing and the entire movie was narrated from a few persons’ perspectives. In addition, I personally do not particularly like how the minority race, Indians, is portraited. “Flags Of Our Fathers” is lacking in the entertainment viewpoint.

I would not say “Flags Of Our Fathers” is a classic as yet but I am keen to watch “Letters From Iwo Jiwa”, also directed by Client Eastwood, with the same war told from the Japanese perspective. “Letters From Iwo Jiwa” is opening on Dec 20.

Almost 7,000 American solders were killed on Iwo Jiwa; more than 20,000 Japanese troops perished. The two movies should be watched back-to-back.

Categories
Movie Reviews Romance

The Last Kiss – A Portrait of Different Facets of Relationships

If you are a big fan of the OC girl Rachel Bilson and if you are a guy, I have good and bad news for you. Good news is, after the movie you will probably go to bed dreaming about that tastefully filmed sex scene of hers. Bad news is that she doesn’t have a lot of air time in this movie.

Jokes aside, “The Last Kiss” was written by Paul Haggis (“Million Dollar Baby” and “Crash”) that aimed to bring out the different facets of relationships through five couples – one who just couldn’t get over his last relationship, one who felt instantly in love with someone in a wedding party and realized that perhaps great sex by itself did not give him enough incentive to move onto the meet-the-parents phase, one who got stuck with a crying baby and a stressed up wife, and of course not to forget to mention Michael (played by Zach Braff from the TV series “Scrub”) who should be happy with his relationship with his girlfriend Jenna – recently pregnant with his baby – but yet he felt that being close to 30 meant that there would be no more surprises in his well-planned life and call it mistiming, he found this young college student Kim (played by none other than Rachel) simply irresistible. Did I mention five couples? Jenna’s parents – 30 years into a dull but not unblemished marriage – played a major role in the plot development as well.

What I really like about “The Last Kiss” is its seamless transition of what different couples have been going through in their relationships that portraits love, temptation, infidelity, forgiveness, marriage, and friendship. In another word, it is highly likely that you may identify yourself with the movie. If you choose to watch this movie, you will see lots of happy moments, sad moments, and heartwarming moments. “The Last Kiss” is not one of those typical Hollywood feel good movie so I suppose it may not be a movie for everyone. Overall, I enjoyed watching it.

What impacted me the most in the movie? If you are willing to give whatever it takes for the relationship to work, that means you should never give up. Because you can’t fail if you don’t give up.

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Animation Movie Reviews

Happy Feet – An Entertaining Movie Short Of A Great One

Happy Feet has all the right ingredients: lovely dancing penguins, great music scores, beautiful sceneries, and a unique concept that attracting a soul mate in this land of penguins is through a heart song. Mumble, a penguin that cannot sing but loves to tap dance, is the hero of the movie. Being an outcast, it is a story of how Mumble sets out a journey in proving his worth to his society.

Happy Feet has some really great dance sequence and from the animation perspective, it is top notch. Totally realistic. From the script and storyline perspective, there are still rooms for improvement. I draw parallelism with the movie E.T. and I accept the story development as it is. My movie buddies find the ending a bit far fetch and unrealistic. Regardlessly, since I am a penguin lover myself, I find the movie entertaining to watch – especially the dancing baby penguin.