By now, I believed most of you folks have watched the latest Mission Impossible (不可能的任务) instalment, the 6th instalment - Fallout （全面瓦解）. If you have not done so, my advise is : GO WATCH IT ALREADY! Anyway, if you are not convinced and understand Mandarin, feel free to check out my review with a friend from Malaysia below (spoiler alert!! 视频有雷暴！！):
Short version:
Extended version:
All in all, I am giving it 4.5 (out of 5 stars). Have you watched the movie and what do you think?
Zootopia, the latest animation from Disney has broken its own opening record with rave reviews from both professional movie critics as well as the audience, young and old. I've just came back from the theatre and I am 100% agreeable with what my friend, Ben, has to say about the movie.
It's an animation with tons of animals, behaving exactly like human beings revolving around the themes of stereotyping, dreams, betrayal and forgiveness.
In any case, let's see how bad is it, in the words of my friend, Ben :
Zootopia is a awesome cartoon for the kids and the adults. While the kids are bedazzled by the colorful talking animals, adults get a treat on a movie about racial discrimination, gender discrimination, stereotyping and chasing after one's dream.
Zootopia is set in a make-believe world where human doesn't exist, while animals are anthropomorphic. Young Judy Hoops was a rookie cop, who not only a female in an all-male environment, she was also the first bunny which was presumed to be unsuitable for the job. Striving to prove herself, she had 48 hours to solve a case of missing animal and had to team up with rabbit's natural enemy, a sly fox named Nick Wilde.
I must say I am wow-ed by this movie, definitely one of the best cartoon in the recent years. Hard to tackle topics were presented by never preachy. There were many adults jokes in it (rabbits are good at multiplying to the sarcastic remarks that the police chef is good at motivational posters) and even the widely publicized sloths’ scene suit the adults better as we would understand the animal’s characteristics better than kids.
One central theme ran throughout the movie was the issue of tags or labels. Even Judy’s parents believed that as a bunny, she was more suitable as a farmer than a police officer. Fox Nick wasn’t spared in this animal utopia when his status as fox was forever regarded as a cunning and sly person.
The voice acting was top notch with the CGI effects smooth. The plot flowed efficiently never overly draggy even when there were plenty of serious sub plots such as drug abuse and child bully involved.
While large crowd of movie fans are expected to throng the cinemas over this May Day weekend for the highly anticipated Avengers - Age Of Ultron (personally, I will be watching it on next Monday in IMAX 3D), let's not forgetting another upcoming reboot of superheroes franchise, Fantastic 4.
8 years after the last Fantastic 4 movie (Fantastic 4 : Rise Of The Silver Surfer, 2007), this reboot is directed by Josh Trank (whom brought us Chronicle in 2012) and will be looking at the young adult life of the fantastic 4, hence, all casts are brand new i.e. Miles Teller (as Mr Fantastic), Kate Mara (as The Invisible Woman), Jamie Bell (as The Thing) and Michael B. Jordan (as The Human Torch).
Avengers - Age Of Ultron is no doubt one of the biggest and most anticipated sequel for many movie goers around the world. The fans have waited for 3 years since the massive success of The Avengers in 2012.
Today, I am going to share a massive list of Trailers, Posters, Behind the scenes and even the action figures to get ourselves ready for this massive sequel. Before that, let's take a look of the synopsis of movie (source : GeekTyrant.com) :
When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye, are put to the ultimate test as the fate of the planet hangs in the balance. As the villainous Ultron emerges, it is up to The Avengers to stop him from enacting his terrible plans, and soon uneasy alliances and unexpected action pave the way for an epic and unique global adventure.
Marvel’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron” stars Robert Downey Jr., who returns as Iron Man, along with Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk. Together with Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, and with the additional support of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill, the team must reassemble to defeat James Spader as Ultron, a terrifying technological villain hell-bent on human extinction. Along the way, they confront two mysterious and powerful newcomers, Wanda Maximoff, played by Elizabeth Olsen, and Pietro Maximoff, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and meet an old friend in a new form when Paul Bettany becomes Vision.
Now, let's get to the business and check out the monster list below :
The Posters/Character Posters :
The Trailers :
The Featurette And Behind The Scenes :
The Action Figures (Hulk and Hulkbuster) :
Personally, I am very excited about the movie and am looking forward to it. What about you?
Avengers: Age of Ultron will be released internationally 1st May 2015 in IMAX and IMAX 3D.
It looks like no amount of postponement and special effect can save a movie, even from the supposedly promising directors (the ones brought us the classic Matrix Trilogy). Yeah, I am talking about Jupiter Ascending, it opened last week in US with a disappointing box office standing (at number 3 with mere $19 million).
Personally, I have not watched the movie and to be frank when I saw the first trailer last year, it seems to be quite promising, especially from special effect perspective. Having said that, I think we've seen so much of equally beautiful and awesome stuff already and hence special effect alone doesn't cut it anymore.
In any case, let's see how bad is it, in the words of my friend, Ben :
Jupiter Ascending should be called Jupiter Crashed or What's so important about Jupiter? or the way to make a lazy person work hard is to let that person go through royalty.
The film was originally slated for release for June 20, 2014. But the studio delayed the film's release and pushed it back almost an entire year (9 months to be exact) to give the production more time in the post-production process. Everytime when a studio delayed the release, you know there is trouble. After watching it, I can understand why; confused plot, mediocre acting and almost no characters' development, they really need to beef up on the CGI so that audiences will not demand a refund.
Let's start with the good points. Visually there are no fault here, big budgets were spent to make the scenes vibrant and lush. The duo Wachowski siblings always has a way with concept and this time was no exception. The concept of Earth is a farm for harvest was interesting but sadly the execution was badly done.
They tried very hard to make an otherwise run-the-mill type of Chosen One plot interesting by throwing a lot of subplot and jargon terms. Unfortunately many of them were blandly delivered and often led to no resolution. Towards the end, I have no idea why Jupiter is that important, they could have close the case by harvesting the planet immediately.
Characters were painstakingly one dimensional with Eddie Redmayne (he really shined in Theory of Everything) giving one of the worst villain performances in movie history. Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum shared little screen chemistry, with Mila being the atypical damsel in distress role whose decisions in the movie made me rolled my eyes.
Jupiter Ascending is a visual feat no doubt, but I think they learned from Transformer school of movie directing, many a times the actions were so confusing and blurred that I have no idea what's going on.
Verdict 2 1/2 out of 5 stars. Watch if you like mindless action movie (not one which try to pretend to be smart), if you are looking out for The Matrix or even Cloud Atlas type of Sc-Fi movie, you maybe better off scrapping the toilet bowl.
Sorry for the long absence from posting. I am back and I am bringing back my friend, Ben, to provide his latest guest review - Whiplash. It is not a 3D or IMAX movie but it is deemed a MUST WATCH movie of the year (in his own word).
Whiplash is a powerful drama written and directed by Damien Chazelle with strong casts like Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons and Mellisa Benoist. Without further ado, check out my friend, Ben's equally strong review below ;
What can I say? This is a MUST WATCH movie.
To start of, I know nothing of the movie, didn't even see the trailer. What I knew it is a movie about drummer, which is evident in the movie poster that I walked pass. This is one of the movie that I will place as low priority viewing.
How wrong I am and how glad I was to catch this masterpiece. The movie is about an aspiring drummer and his relationship with the acid-tongued sadist professor of the prestigious music academy. The starting scene wonderfully described the coming love-hate tension between the pair.
The story was top notch, with turn and twists that defied what normal movies will head. Many a time, I thought of how the story would continue and the movie proved otherwise, in an unexpected but realistic way. I was siting at the edge on a movie that's not even supposed to be a thriller, and this movie succeeded in making every turn memorable. In addition, the spitfire dialogues were witty and sharp, with the constant swearing and the F words earned this movie an R ratings. This is a pity as I think this is a movie that teenagers, who are at the start of their career and life, should watch.
The chemistry between actors Miles Teller (in some way gave me hopes for the coming Fantastic Four reboot as Teller will be the new Reed Richards) and J.K. Simmons was astonishing, full of tension and yet strangely fulfilling. Both characters were flawed and yet something we all can relate to.
Ultimately this movie ask how much we would sacrifice for our dream? How much is too much? Where is the line between abuse and inspiring to excel oneself? Is it true on what Fletcher said: There are no two words in the English language more harmful than good job?
Another part that I like the movie is that it challenged you to think of the motives of Fletcher, was he just a selfish asshole who will do anything to get his goal (to win in the competition) or was his reason as noble as he claimed?
4 1/2 out of 5 stars
p/s I find actor Miles Teller looked uncanny like the late Elvis Presley.
If you have not already know, the Star Trek 3 project is already in the pipeline and recently, it is official that Justin Lin (from the Fast And Furious franchise fame) will take the helm of directorship. I like the Fast And Furious movies and am happy with the news.
I think it will be tough to tops the success brought by J.J. Abrams in the new Star Trek franchise but I hope Justin bringing in new perspective to the already popular franchise.
Justin Lin - The new director of Star Trek 3
What do you think about the news? Are you looking forward to it?
From "I'll be back" to "I've been waiting for you"! Arnold Schwarzenegger is really back for his famous character, the terminator! Yesterday, Paramount Pictures has released the very first trailer of Terminator : Genisys which looks rather impressive.
Directed by Alan Taylor (whom last brought us the Thor - The Dark World), besides, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke, Jai Cortney, Jason Clarke, Lee Byung-hun (Korean) and Matt Smith are involved in the project too. Synopsis of the movie (source : GeekTyrant) :
Terminator: Genisys starts in 2029, when the Future War is raging and a group of human rebels has the evil artificial-intelligence system Skynet on the ropes. John Connor (Clarke) is the leader of the resistance, and Kyle Reese (Courtney) is his loyal soldier, raised in the ruins of post apocalyptic California. As in the original film, Connor sends Reese back to 1984 to save Connor’s mother, Sarah (Clarke), from a Terminator programmed to kill her so that she won’t ever give birth to John. But what Reese finds on the other side is nothing like he expected.
Terminator : Genisys will be released on 1st July 2015 in 3D and IMAX 3D. Now, enjoy the cool first trailer below :
It's about time to relive the Neverland fantasy once again! Inspired by the Peter Pan, the upcoming adaptation, simply called PAN looks impressive in its first trailer.
Directed by Joe Wright (whom last brought us Anna Karenina, by Keira Knightley) and starring Hugh Jackman, Amanda Seyfried, Rooney Mara and Garett Hedlund. Short synopsis of Pan (source : imdb.com) :
The story of an orphan who is spirited away to the magical Neverland. There, he finds both fun and dangers, and ultimately discovers his destiny -- to become the hero who will be forever known as Peter Pan.
Now, enjoy the spectacular trailer and character posters below :
Pan will be released in big screens on 17th July 2015.
