Tag: Mila Kunis

Categories
Fantasy & Sci-fi Movie Reviews

Jupiter Ascending – The Good, The Bad, And Everything In Between

Do The Wachowskis manage to recreate the success they have with The Matrix in Jupiter Ascending? The short answer is no. But if you are a fan of sci-fi, this movie can be pretty entertaining and exciting to watch in parts. Somewhere in the middle though, one dude fell asleep in the cinema and snored very loudly. I don’t blame him. Luckily I had a good night sleep the day before.

Yep, it is Jupiter Ascending.

The story is very promising. Three alien siblings together they own the galaxy through capitalism. They populate the planet with species and once the planet is overpopulated, they harvest the entire local inhabitants in order to manufacture an essence that restores youth for profit. Time is the currency most sought after at the pinnacle of technology. These enterprises are to be blamed for the extinction of dinosaurs in Earth. Who am I to complain?

The mother of the siblings – the queen of the galaxy – was murdered by one of her children long, long time ago. Millenniums later, she is reincarnated as an earthling named Jupiter Jones played by Mila Kunis. One sibling sends in agents to assassinate this new queen-to-be. Another sibling sends in a hunter played by Channing Tatum to protect or capture Jupiter, depending on how you see it. The third sibling sends in agents to kidnap her. In the mist of all these chaos, Earth is due for harvesting. Can Jupiter Jones who cleans wealthy households for a living save the world?

The movie started off OK with Jupiter Jones going about with her chores, very much like Neo in The Matrix. Very soon, audience are bombarded by over the top CGI effect that is very nice to look at, but with little soul in it. There isn’t much character development at that point. And when it does, without the CGI, the drama between each siblings and the main characters seems dull and low key. Audience are on the fence waiting for the next bang to arrive.

The last part of the movie is in fact pretty good. Now that the context is established, the CGI strikes an emotional core. This movie does end in a high note.

Onto the acting, Channing Tatum is doing well (also one of the reasons why I catch this movie). It is hard to fall in love with Mila Kunis’s acting though. Side by side with Channing, Mila doesn’t seem to be at the same level. Then again, it is relatively hard to fall in love with a character that starts off cleaning houses and there isn’t really a moment in the story for her to transform into someone great. She inherits the title of the queen of galaxy in a rather unceremonious fashion. Not to mention the character doesn’t have new-found ‘power’ (they should have expanded on the bee controlling thing). Jupiter Jones suppose to be witty. But the way she foils the evil plots of the siblings is just … elemental. It doesn’t demonstrate how smart she is. So, what is there to love Jupiter Jones the character besides those big beautiful eyes?

For what it is worth, the movies does tell me one thing. Capitalism is bad, for the galaxy.

Categories
Comedy Movie Reviews

TED – What A Naughty, Naughty Teddy Bear

Finally, TED has arrived in Singapore.  I have been anticipating this film for ages.  Courtesy of omy.sg, Cynthia and I had a real good laugh watching TED in a preview screening session.  What’s there not to love about Ted the teddy bear who talks bad, takes drug, and gets drunk?  It’s hilarious.

Think on it, this film could have gone wrong in so many different ways.  Two grownups and a talking teddy bear living in our modern day society?  Miraculously, this film pulls through as something ‘believable’.  Thirty years ago, a boy made a wish for a teddy bear as a Christmas present.  That wish came true.  Later on, he made another wish that the bear would be able to talk.  Lo and behold, because magic could exist, we have a living and breathing teddy bear becoming the little boy’s new best friend.  The teddy bear has become headline news.  Alas, like all things in life, novelty wears off.  Thirty years later, no one cares for a talking teddy bear.  Life moves on.

The story then begins with the little boy John now grown up (Mark Wahlberg) and so is Ted.  John has fallen in love with Lori (Mila Kunis).  But will a man who still hangs out with his teddy bear be able to truly love another person?  Well, that is where the drama begins.

TED is a joy to watch, all credit to two ingredients.  First, the teddy bear on the big screen does look realistic and appears to interact with the actors well.  Remember Star Wars I when Jedi Liam Neeson couldn’t see eye-to-eye with Jar Jar Binks?  Ted the teddy bear seems very much alive in the movie.  Second, the script coming out from Ted’s mouth is hilarious.  At some parts of the film, the scriptwriter has established a pattern so well that the audience would laugh even before the line is out.

Fun stuff aside, TED is a heartwarming film.  There are some tearing moments.  Above all, the chemistry between Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis is convincing.

TED is about changes in life that upset the status quo.  It is a story of growing up and learning to live with someone new.  On a separate note, watching TED reminds me of a novel written by Clifford Chase called Winkie.  In that book, the story begins with Winkie the teddy bear arrested for terrorism because he happens to be at the wrong place in the wrong time.  That book too is hilarious, more so in a dark comedy’s way.  I think I may pick up Winkie when I have the bandwidth to do some reading.

Categories
Comedy Movie Reviews Romance

Friends With Benefits – Mila Is Adorable

I don’t think it has anything to do with aging (I hope).  It was a pretty hectic week at work.  In some instances, you can almost measure how overloaded one is by observing the number of mistakes one begins to make.  I read the showtime of 17:30 as 7.30pm, which was obviously wrong.  Saturday traffic near Orchard area was horrendous.  We have so many cars in town.  Perhaps all we need is a second Orchard area to split the crowd.  This weekend, we are confined to our areas nearby.  Japanese sushi and sake on a Friday night, Nonya food on a Saturday afternoon and a home-cooked cod fish meal for dinner, takeaway Yong Tau Foo for lunch after Sunday Mass and yet another home-cooked meal for dinner.  All within the proximity of our home.

Back to our previous weekend, by the time we reached the cinema, we were 10 minutes late (actually, we were 2 hours and 10 minutes late).  Cynthia was starving and TK was not feeling 100% either.  So, in retrospect, it was a blessing in disguise.  We had a relaxing dinner and the cinema was kind enough to print another set of tickets for us.  Same movie, same time, but on the next day.

“Friends With Benefits” is so much better than “No Strings Attached“.  Some parts of “Friends” are a bit uncomfortable to watch.  But not as bad as “Strings”.  I do not know many celebrities who publicly admit that they play World of Warcraft.  Mila Kunis has played WoW once upon a time.  That is a good enough reason for me to be her fan.  For most part of the movie, she is irresistibly adorable.  It is the dialog and the way she carries it more than anything else.  As for Justin Timberlake, I did not have high expectation on his acting ability.  There seems to be chemistry between the two on screen.  That too is good enough for me.

Movies like these often have little takeaways.  The story seems to conclude that with girls, it is not just sex, however casual the relationship is.  I thought that we have well passed the era of sexual stereotype after all these years.

Categories
Drama Movie Reviews

Black Swan – How I Love …

Chinese New Year is a time we spend it with our family and in our case, ‘extended’ family.  At the stroke of midnight, Cynthia, our gaming buddy Mark, and I were in our goblin form (with two others) battling gnomes and machines inside the dungeon Gnomeregan.  We did not notice the time until we saw the long list of warm wishes flowing from the guild chat window.  On the second day of New Year, we met my sister, her husband Benny, and little Bethany.  On the first day of New year, Cynthia, our movie buddy TK, and I watched “Black Swan”.  I have extremely high expectation on this movie because first, I am a huge fan of Natalie.  I love her performance since the beginning, when she partnered with Jean Reno in the 1994 Luc Besson movie.  Second, I am a huge fan of Tchaikovsky, especially his ballet piece – Swan Lake.  I used to have several versions of Swan Lake recorded by different conductors and orchestras in cassette format.  You may think that a classical piece is a classical piece and they are the same.  But they are not.  When you are used to the rhythm and the details of a particular recording, listening to a different one can be – initially – excruciating.  I could write on and on about Swan Lake, the classical music.  And Swan Lake, the ballet.  But let’s go back to the movie, “Swan Lake”.

I would prefer to classify “Black Swan” as a drama and a psychological thriller, rather than an erotic thriller as marketed here in Singapore.  It is ironic because after the censorship – noticeable on that girl-on-girl scene – what is left is a series of fast forward awkward looking shots.  But look at the brighter side, two decades ago, seeing two girls kissing on screen must have been unthinkable in Singapore.  Perhaps two decades from now, adult viewers can enjoy artworks closer to the original form.

The story of “Black Swan” is surprisingly (or unsurprisingly) simple and straightforward.  There is a loose tie in with the ballet’s story development too.  Ballet dancer Nina – played by Natalie Portman – is going to be the swan queen, dancing the roles of both the white and the black swan.  Does perfection require technique and control?  Or rather, passion and letting go?  It is a story of one lead ballet dancer’s struggle to embrace the opposing roles and her transformation from the white swan to both the white and the black swan.  Natalie Portman is a brilliant actress.  Some scenes on how she methodologically goes through the ballet training are almost too painful to watch.  The result is authentic.  You can see that she has put in a hundred and ten on this movie.

From the choreography and filming viewpoint, of the few ballet scenes on screen, I felt lifted watching them (according to Cynthia, I was shaking).  Partly because I have already loved the music (and the actress).  And partly because of the special effects added to some of the scenes in making them more than what we seen on a real life ballet stage.  I am not a ballet dancer and am unable to comment on the technique of the actors and the actresses and their doubles.  From what I have seen on screen, I am convinced.

Will the Oscar voters agree with Natalie Portman that this is perfect?  We will have to wait and see.

Categories
Comedy Movie Reviews Romance

Forgetting Sarah Marshall – So Real That I Almost Cried Watching

OK.  Almost.  I may not able to 100% relate to “Sex and the City”, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” is as close to big-boys-do-cry as it can get.  At least in my book.  I mean, there is nothing macho about getting hurt, is there?  And yes, men do the stupidest things when that someone we love walked away.  So many scenes within the film I can personally relate to.  Gosh.  I am hopeless.  Fortunately, the film is so hilarious that got the entire Movie Review Squad laughing all the way.  At the end of the show, everyone claimed credit for choosing the show.  Uh-huh.  I swear it was my idea, my pick.

It feels so real probably because the lead actor Jason Segel is also the writer of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”.  And he was the guest star of CSI for three episodes.  That probably explains the hilarious cut scenes of a CSI-look-alike TV series within the movie.  Jason Segel has also brought in some of his real life relationship episodes into the show.  No wonder.

Ukrainian born actress Mila Kunis is so totally hot.  And so is my breath-of-fresh-air Heroes actress Kristen Bell.  Cynthia asked which one I like better.  Huh?  Can I have both?  I don’t really know Russell Brand but if you were to ask me who is the true comedian of the show?  Russell’s off-beat-over-the-top-least-sexy-acting got me laughing all the time.  That guy is so funny.  Gosh.  Love his British accent too.

For the record, I picked the show.  I say so because I get to write this blog.  Ha!