13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi

Better than Transformers this one is! 

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi – This movie is based on actual events.

Not your ordinary soldiers. 

After the fall of Gadhafi, Libya becomes one of the most dangerous places on Earth forcing countries to close down their embassy in fear of attacks by terrorist. The Americans however decided to stay put (God knows why) guarded by private military contractors, Global Response Staff (GRS) who are stationed not too far away from temporary residence for any visiting ambassador. Former special operations personnel, Jack Da Silva (John Krasinski) joins his GRS mates and is soon deployed on his first mission to accompany a discussion with local oil tycoon. Meanwhile, US Ambassador, Chris Stevens decides to drop by Benghazi as well to maintain diplomatic connections amidst the political and social chaos. He is guarded by local militia on limited payroll and some Diplomatic Security Agents. On the anniversary on September 11, all hell breaks loose when a group of Islamic militants assault and seize control of the compound. Fierce fighting ensues between the both sides till dawn with huge causality including the ambassador himself becoming one of the victims.

Scurfy John actually looks good in this flick! 

Get ready for some loud explosions once the AK’s and mortar comes into play. Everything and anything blows up like it’s happening right in front of you. Equally chilling feeling is when the ambassador’s residents get engulfed in rapid fire started by the militants. Not to mentioned the gory and graphic scenes full of blood to capture the horrible injuries. I was squirming in my seat when I saw a man’s hand dangling after getting hit by mortar. Adoiiiiiii….luckily I didn’t faint on my seat. Despite the adrenaline rush every now and then, there was also a subtle message inserted to reflect on what was going on. Michael Bay redeemed himself with this flick after messing up Transformers. Amidst the catastrophe, he managed to capture the painful feeling of innocent civilians trapped in between those who are hungry for power and those who just want a peaceful live.

Better than London has Fallen. 

I have no idea how to describe how I felt while watching this movie except for asking…”What is wrong with us humans? Why are we killing each other and what for?”. With the recent rampant attacks happening all over the world, it’s only a matter of time before we really run out of time to save our world from total annihilation. Wake up and make peace not war stupid humans. Enough is enough. 

Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice Review

Face-off! 

Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice Review - …so it begins…”the Bat of Gotham and The Son of Krypton face off in an epic battle!” Yeah riteeeeeeeeeeeee…

Red cape man or black cape man? 

The flick starts off from where it ended in Man of Steel, with the city dwellers witnessing Superman (Henry Cavill) battling against General Zod while the city turns into rubble. Bruce Wayne’s aka Batman (Ben Affleck) own building also crumbles with his employees becoming innocent victims which fuels his hatred towards Superman even more. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) loathes both superhero and finds a perfect opportunity to turn them against each other by ‘creating’ a new creature he calls Doomsday. Observing quietly is Diana Prince aka Wonder Women (Gal Gadot) who later joins force to defeat Doomsday. In between Batman and Superman beats the crap out of each other with Superman returning to Smallville to get motherly advice from Martha Kent (Diane Lane) and also his other mission to keep Lois Lane (Amy Adams) out of trouble…(think the usual falling off building, trapped under water) and oh also trying to figure out who Wonder Women is. Meanwhile, Batman also had to deal with his own demons (as in to become a bat or remain human – just kidding!)

...then there's these two...hurmm...

Goodness me…I’m not sure where I should start murdering this movie, I went in with low or rather no expectation after Zack Snyder killed any sense of humour left in Superman with his Man of Steel revival. This time he even got Batman to go ultra-moody and sombre with no chance of us ever getting to see any glimpse of the previous charming or delightful Superman and Batman flicks used to offer us. Adding insult to the injury is turning Lex Luthor into an annoying chatterbox with his eccentric antics. Meanwhile, Lois Lane still remains the damsel in distress who seems to have not learned how to keep herself safe without being rescued by her super alien. The only saving grace was Wonder Women that light up otherwise solemn screen. The story was ALL OVER THE PLACE. The CGI was overused. The acting talents was greatly underused (Read: Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter, Diane Lane) and yeah I couldn’t wait to leave the cinema, disappointed, once again.

Thank God for this Gal...Gadot! #TeamWonderWomen 

Bring in the Marvel Comic movies anytime please, DC comics is just too damn dark for me and for the love of God, I hope Wonder Women spin off will be better than this crap. 

P/s - Thank you Yes4G for the preview passes. 

Sisters Review

Look who is here! 

Sisters Review – When Hollywood’s best female comedic duo joins force to come up with a movie.

Ready to party? 

Maura (Amy Poehler) and Kate Ellis (Tina Fey) parents decide to sell their family house in Orlando to buy a condo. They inform Maura to tell Kate because Kate does not take bad news well and just as expected, Kate goes berserk and together, the sisters plan to throw an ‘Ellis Island’ themed party as their last hurrah in their childhood house. They invite all their former high school friends. One thing leads to another and the whole night turns into an unforgettable event. With both sisters trying to work out their issues while dealing with their aging-selves, it’s only a matter time before they learn to be a responsible adult.

Is somebody gonna get lucky? 

I had high hopes for the movie because Amy and Tina was an awesome combo in Baby Mama few years ago. Unfortunately all I got was lame to downward immature antics which did draw few chuckles here and there but in the end got me going… “That’s it?”. There were no substances and the story was all over the place with no real value whatsoever.

Same bathtub? Errr....no...not for me. 

Come on Amy and Tina, you ladies are better than this. Please don’t let me down again ok. Take this crap of a movie as lesson to come up with better flick next round ok. 

The Divergent Series: Allegiant Review

The gang is back

The Divergent Series: Allegiant Review – More of Four, more of Tris, more of…you get the idea…

Ready for another adventure 

Continuing from my review for the exciting cliff-hanger in Insurgent, Allegiant continues with Janine (Kate Winslate) being defeated and Evelyn (Naomi Watts) controlling of whatever that is left of Chicago. A grim regime similarity soon ensues when ‘trials’ are held to punish former Erudites. Tris and Four however are still determined to make it beyond the wall and *spoiler, they succeed only to discover another plot (not again!) against human kind are taking place there as well. Faced with more dilemmas, Tris has to make more decision and choice not just for her survival but the rest of individual beings.

Ok…to be honest, after the disappointing ending to The Hunger Games series, I’m fast losing interest in this story as well. Mainly maybe because my two favourite people are no longer in this 3^rd instalment, namely, Kate and Jai while my other favourite Maggie Q gets killed off so soon before I could even ‘lepas rindu’. Plus the plot that keeps going and going but getting nowhere was also beginning to irritate me. By now, I’m so used to the CGI (even with the intro of ultra-cool drone) that everything feels like MEH. Same goes for the acting, same old, same old from the existing cast except kudos to Miles Teller for being an annoying brat (me likey!). With addition of Jeff Daniels (another casting mistake after Naomi Watts) who looks like his about to break into his Dumb and Dumber role (no disrespect to his talent but he sooooo doesn’t suit to become David) only got me waiting for the movie to end. Nothing new here people, really. ZZZZZZ

Wall climbers...

Just like all young adult fiction novels, "Allegiant" is the final film of the trilogy which will be split into two parts, making it the fourth movie franchise to do so, along with "Harry Potter", "The Twilight Saga" and "The Hunger Games and my question is why? Well, the obvious answer would be to make more money but the downside of it is the once appealing franchise is fast turning into stale leftover milk but that’s just me, maybe. Whatever. #fliphair 

P/s - Thank you Klips for the preview tickets.

* Divergent review

* Insurgent review

Munafik Review

Haaaa....ada beran tak tangok? 

Munafik Review – Local horror movie with a twist.

...these two gifted people. Bravo on job well done! 

Ustaz Adam (Syamsul Yusof) possesses a special gift to ‘nurse’ those who are ‘disturbed’ by evil spirit back to health. His own faith however is shaken when he loses his wife in a terrible car accident. Traumatised for not being able to save her, he makes it his mission to find out who was responsible for the tragedy. One day his services are required to heal Maria (Nabila Huda) who is under heavy distressed. Bizarre and worrying incidents begin to happen as the Maria’s condition gets worse. It will take all of Ustaz Adam own belief and best effort to face his biggest challenge that might either strengthen or weakened his devotion in God for once in all. (Trust me I want to elaborate more but don’t want to spoil the fun so that’s all the cat I can let out of the bag…huhu) 

Dengar tu! Ingat tu! 

*Confession – if you know me, you would know that I am scared kitten when it comes of horror movies but something about this flick intrigued my interest to check it out so I braved myself to watch it on the big screen but…of course I took my glasses off whenever there was a scary scenes (…and God there were plenty of it!) or else I would have died during the screening and would not be writing this review now. Sekian. #sayasedarsayapen-takuts. Ok, now back to original programme

Ustaz Adam facing his biggest obstacle 

From the abovementioned confession you would guessed that I watched half the movie without my glasses on but whenever I put had it on, it was pure gold class! From the word get go, we are served with amazing cinematic experience unlike any other. I truly enjoyed the camera angles from high view to bottom view to sideways. It was pure perfection that was coupled with freaking awesome sound editing. Some scenes were not scary but boy the sound and lighting will make you crap in your seat! Kudos to Syamsul for capturing the essence of keeping his audience glued to the screen with or without hands covering their faces. All the effort was also greatly assisted by skilful casting including Syamsul himself who played the lead role. Amy Search’s daughter, Nabila Huda was also hauntingly terrifying that would give Linda Blair in The Exorcist a run for her money. Despite being categorised as a horror movie, there is an underlying lesson and moral values that can serve as guides to the Muslims and also non-Muslims alike in my opinion.

First time pi tgk wayang sesame pas keje. Nak je makcik ni sepak aku sebab aku asik tergezut jew. Huhu. 

With so many we-are-trying-to-scare-you-but-sorry-we-didn’t flicks flooding the big screen lately, Munafik could rival and come out top of its field. Kudos to Syamsul for showing different side of his many talents. He single handed might save this genre or even other categories if given the right opportunity and guidance. I now look forward to watch more of his handy work. 

The Kid From The Big Apple Review

Locally produced, internationally rewarded. 

The Kid From The Big Apple Review – When young meets old and East and West collides.

Bonding time! 

Sophia was raised by a single father who gets pregnant young and decides to move to New York and live with her boyfriend. For twelve (12) years she lives away from her father until one day due to work commitment in China, she had to leave her daughter under her father’s care who is a respected figure among the local community. The kid, Sarah is at first resentful of everything from moving to Malaysia to getting to know her grandfather to making new friends. She spends most of her time playing with her mobile phone while her ‘Kong Kong’ makes all the effort to make her stay comfortable. Soon Sarah begins to adapt to the new lifestyle while slowly making a deep connection with her Grandfather along with learning a thing or two about Chinese traditions. As time pass by, Sarah becomes attached to her Grandfather until on the day Chinese New Year when they receive awful news. Can this family get reunite or fate will present them with more challenge?  

Playtime! 

Bring some tissue or better still a tissue box when you enter cinema to catch this gem. It will tug your heart at all corner and in no time, you will find yourself wiping away your tears. Yes people, I cried too so you know this is no joke. Besides making you weep, it also make you smile thinking about the good old days when kids used to play outside and getting bruised instead of just planting their faces on latest gadget. There are appearances of latest technology (ipod and ipad) but in a form lesson how not to let it take over human emotions. The cast was brilliantly selected with the main kudos going to young Sarah but my personal favourite is Bao. Watch and you will know why. The storyline is very relevant in today’s world which will leave a lasting impact for both the younger and older generation.  

Malaysian pride 

With the school holiday around the corner and the movie winning its well- deserved accolades left right and centre, gather your family and even friends to watch this film. In the current fast paced world, the two (2) hours you spend to catch this cinematic wonder is worth every penny and time. 

P/s – It is a Local Chinese movie which might put off non-Chinese speaking community but the translation was done well so you don’t have to worry about not understanding the story. A definite must-watch and watch again movie in my book this one is. 

Kung Fu Panda 3 Review

Guess who is back! 

Kung Fu Panda 3 Review – Our favourite dragon warrior is back on the big screen once again.

Po and Li reunited! 

Serenity at the Valley of Peace is disturbed as just Po (voiced by Jack Black) reunites with his biological panda father Li (Bryan Cranston) which cause a discomfort with his adopted Dad, Mr. Ping (James Hong). It is later reveal that supernatural villain Kai (J.K. Simmons) have been stealing other Kung Fu Master’s chi is ready to wreak havoc across China. Po agrees to follow his father back to ‘Panda village’ to learn how to live like an actual Panda while trying the master the power of chi. As one after another Kung Fu Master lose their chi to Kai, it’s up to Po to stop the mayhem. Will Po truly become not just a dragon warrior and save the day once again?

New baddie in the block 

With an already existing impressive assemble of voice cast, addition of an Oscar winner and nominees (J.K. Simmons, Bryan Cranston and Kate Hudson) lend their voice talent makes thing merrier. That however is also a down point as other remaining characters getting fewer lines. I could only count few words by Jackie Chan playing the monkey and even Dustin Hoffman ends up playing second fiddle this time around. Beside the flooding of new roles, I have no other complain because this is fun ride from the beginning. The music, the animation, the colour is once again at its level best capturing the essence of China. There is also a lesson to be learned about family value along with teaching not to be greedy both applicable for kids and adults alike.

Panda village. 

Despite the survival of Kung Fu Panda as a three-quell, I think it’s about time Po and the rest of Furious Five retire before becoming obsolete with ridiculous storyline in the future. The third instalment is just enough to make you love but also leave the legendary Dragon Warrior as one of the best animation ever produced. I know I will remember the Panda-monium (pun intended) created by a cuddly Panda called Po! 

3rd and final outing, hopefully. 

Trivia - Four of Angelina Jolie's children, Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, Pax Jolie-Pitt, Knox Jolie-Pitt and Zahara Jolie Pitt, are voice extras in the scene when Po talks to the pandas about a game plan.

P/s - Thank you Foodpanda for the tickets.

Zoolander 2 Review

Hurm...yeah...

Zoolander 2 Review – Tsk tsk tsk (that’s not the sound of a model on a runaway but me after watching this sequel).

Why Ben?
Why Owen?
Why? Why? Why? 

Former fashion model foes Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) and Hansel (Owen Wilson) meet after avoiding each other for more than 15 years. They are brought together by Valentina (Penelope Cruz) who is investigating the mysterious death of pop stars ranging from Bieber to Madonna. While Derek is trying to get his son back, Hansel is struggling to get away from his ‘Orgy’ family. Their investigation leads them to another past rival, Jacobim Mugatu (Will Ferrel) who is trying to seek revenge over his imprisonment. With the whole fashion world icons gathered at one place, what will become of the finale?

The usual suspects. 

Seriously the only good thing about this movie was the celebrities spotting portion where the-who-and-who of the Hollywood glamour making their cameo. From the word get go try to name any or all of whom seem to have lend their precious time to show up in a crap of a movie. Try as I may, I just can’t find any good thing to say about this flick so yeah…Ben…please retire Zoolander once and for all, for all humanity sake.

She's hot. I trust her. 

If you are into cheap laugh and time to kill, by all means, ignore my review and go watch. Don’t say I didn’t warn you though ok. 

London Has Fallen Review

The President's Protector! 

London Has Fallen Review- Mike Banning is back!!!

The who's and who's of the flick. 

After previously surviving the North Koreans attack on the White House in Olympus Has Fallen, once again POTUS, that’s the President of the United State of America (Aaron Eckhart) is under another terrorist attack. This time however, the threat in comes in the form of infamous Pakistani arms dealer Aamir Barkawi seeking revenge against Potus for ‘murdering’ his family using drone during his daughter’s wedding. Only Barkawi and his son survive and they plot to take down as many world leaders as possible in a daring attack in London. In order to execute their plan, they conspire with a mole within the British security force and ‘kill’ the Prime Minister to gather other leaders all at one place to pay their last respect. Despite the tight protection, all hell breaks loose as one after another country leader are either shot, blown and thrown into their death. All except the main target (of course the POTUS lar) survives while being protected by Mike Banning (Gerald Butler). They have to work together to stay alive or face the wrath of a criminal seeking revenge. Can the President escape this time or fall prey to his enemy?

Do not mess with that pout ok! 

If you are into all those ‘shooting’ video games or whatever you call them, you will surely enjoy the bullet count in this flick. Not to forget the body-bags needed to load all the well, dead bodies. Long after the gunfire is over, one might still hear the shelling sound in their head because it seems like all the budget went into ‘buying’ those bullets. besides the gunfire battle, we also get to witness London turned into a rubble when one after another landmark are brought down in a fantastic way, the word fantastic is not meant to sound amazed but more of a shocking style. The team spared no expense on the CGI budget to create ways to blast everything in sight. Acting wise, there are great actors involved but all their talents are wasted with useless lines to focus most on the destruction part of the movie. Get your ear prepared for a lot of loud explosion noise and some gory scenes. You have been warned.

They tried to recruit me, I declined. Hehe 

What is it with Hollywood giving ideas to outsides on how to kill their President? It was intriguing at first but now it is just turning sour with the usual suspects getting blamed for it. First it was the Koreans and now back to what works best, a Muslim terrorist. Sigh…grow up please America. Yes the President is important but doesn’t mean other lives value less yes? From the word get go, one can see who actually ‘starts’ the war, to kill one person a whole family becomes collateral damage. Who in the right mind wouldn’t want to seek revenge over his family’s death right? I’m not saying that it is the right thing to do but we know how human nature works don’t we? Let’s hope this kinda of movie do not turn into a real life situation because then we can really say goodbye to humanity which I don’t mind considering that state of our planet lately but then, that’s just me. 

P/s - Thank you TimeOutKL for the preview tickets.  

Zootopia Review

Welcome to Disney's latest city! 

Zootopia Review – Disney is back with what it does best.

Can you name them all? 

A tiny rabbit, Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) has a big ambition to become a police officer, she works hard and achieve her dreams and travel to Zootopia, a buzzing city where predators and preys live together in harmony. Hopps however is stereotyped as not strong enough to carry out her duties as a cop and assigned to be a ‘meter maid’ by her superior. Not long after animals starts to go missing and Hopps teams up with a fox called Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) to try and solve the mystery. They discover more about themselves as they work closer together. Can these nature’s enemies crack the case or end up on the front page for the wrong reasons?

The human talents behind the animation! 

The recipe for a good animation is picking the right actors to bring life to the character and all the main voice casted were on top of their game from Jason Bateman, Ginnifer Goodwin, Idris Elda, J.K. Simmons among others. Another big advantage of watching Disney flick is the amazing colours to capture sceneries by paying attention even to the tiniest detail. We get to travel from one city to another when both Hopps and Wilde are trying to solve a crime. It will appeal both to kids with basic comedic jest and adult alike with the cultural reference. You are bound to fall in love with at least one of the animal character by the end of the movie.

You go Girl!!! 

Despite being a cartoon there is a heartfelt tale to it to respect others difference and not to label someone just because of the way they look or their background. There is more to a person and you will never know until you get to spend time with them. On that note go ahead and bring a new friend to catch this movie together so you can learn about each other after the screening, I did it and got to know some interesting fact about my quiet-but-actually-funny-buddy. Yearp...you know who you are! *wink wink (unless you didn’t read this review! O.O  *gasp!) 

Hail, Caesar! Review

Why you lied to me poster? Tsk tsk 

Hail, Caesar! Review – That time when I got fooled by the poster. (I’ll explain more)

Him, him, him, him and yeah...her... 

Hurmm…where do I even start? For starters, I’ve not watched any movie by the Coen brothers so I’m not familiar with their style of movie making and true enough I was annoyed after having to sit thru this not-made-for-everybody-flick. I can’t even explain the storyline because it was all over the place. From what I could grasp, it follows the life behind the scene of a movie production house and how one guy tries his best to make everything work. It’s not easy task as he is faced with one problem after another from a kidnapped movie star, unplanned pregnancy and even facing the communist. Yearp, I told you its all-over-the-place. If you have the patience, you might enjoy it otherwise one might just walk out of the cinema like how some did during the preview viewing.

What would you do? 

These names and their pictures on the poster is what fooled me, check out the names, George Clooney, Josh Brolin, Channing Tatum, Tilda Swinton, Scarlett Johansson. Despite the big names, some only play a small role and mostly just irritated the crap of me, Maybe it was just me but yeah, definitely not my type of film. There were however some funny moments but that was not good enough to engage my interest. I was just looking forward for it to end.

Go act in a better flick please guys. 

If any of you had watched it and have a different opinion please do share as for me this was just a waste of my time and thank God it was a preview or else I would have wasted my hard earned money as well. 

The Mermaid Review

Here fishy fishsy...

The Mermaid Review – You think got The Little Mermaid meh? The Chinese also have their own ikan duyung ok.

Love at first fin?

A greedy business along with his partner launches sonar that kills any sea creature in order to reclaim a part of the sea. His action endangers the way of life for mermaids living around the area. Their leader sends over one of the female mermaid disguised as human to seduce the greedy bugger but soon after both the human man and mermaid women falls in love with each other. Noticing the difference in his partner’s attitude, one of the business partners tries to intervene. Will this relationship end in tragedy or can they live happily forever?

Mermaid facing her Octo-man leader. 

Just one look at the trailer, I knew I had to watch this movie. With Stephen Chow helming the director’s chair, one can expect a lot of slap stick but funny jokes coming in from every direction. I was laughing so much even though it was just a lame gag. Besides the joke, a lot of money was also spent for the special effects which paid off well by the looks of it. The mermaids and mer-mans looked real, especially the Octopus leader. I’m sorry about not mentioning the actors name because most of them a relatively new, they acting however was good and manage to capture the audience attention. There was mixture of not just Chinese movie goers besides me being the token Indian, there were also Malays in the cinema proving Stephen Chow appeal towards global audience. Heck Mermaid has since now become one of the highest grossing movie of all time (for Chinese category lar) I heard.

This guy was funny as heck! 

Despite being pegged as a comedy, this movie does have a moral to it. That is taking care of our ecosystem before we face more serious environmental disaster by our greedy action towards Mother Nature. Laugh all you want as long as you get the point to preserve our nature before its gone forever.