Patriots Day Review

Don't mess with Boston.

Patriots Day Review – The winning combo of Director, Peter Berg and his muse, Mark Wahlberg offers us another film based on true story.

May the innocent souls rest in peace. 

Year after year, the people of Boston look forward to their annual marathon but on April 15, 2013, the world were shocked when two (2) bombs blasted at the location of the event. The film captures the moment before, during and after the effects of the blast. Mark Wahlberg plays Boston Police Department Sergeant, Tommy Saunders bent on capturing the criminals responsible for the destruction. With the help of the local and federal agency along with local residents, the Boston PD work around the clock to keep their beloved city safe while they hunt for the culprits.

Boston PD always around to help those in need. 

Mark is the go to guy to depict what true American hero looks like when their civilian comes under attack. With his macho persona yet humorous side taking perfect time to shine, he can still pull crowd to flock a movie with mere mention of his name in the casting list. The other veterans such Kevin Bacon and John Goodman also deserve credit for their real to reel roles. As heart breaking as it is to watch what happened on the fateful day, one can’t imagine how the survivors felt living thru an experience of that magnitude. The film also captures what was going thru the mind of the ‘terrorist’ when they decide to go ahead with their evil plan. What would motivate someone to commit such horrendous act? Nobody knows until it happens and some sad soul becomes an innocent victim.

Mark does what he does best. 

Sadly nothing brings humans close than tragedies but hopefully one day we can all just live in peace despite our differences.

Arrival Review

Adams and Renners ready to face off some sotong kurita. 

Arrival Review – Another year, another compulsory alien landing on Earth movie….zzzzzzzz

Huh?.... I dont speak circle. 

Erm…where do I even start? From what I gathered, alien decides to ‘pick’ twelve (12) spots around Earth to ‘park’ their spaceship without any form of communication understandable to human. The US government elects language expert, Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) and a mathematician, Ian Donelly (Jeremy Renner) to help them investigate the extra-terrestrials intention. Just as they are making progress, other nations involved gets anxious and begin their own way of dealing with the visitors. Will this end in tragedy or human race discover something new about their own existence?

Oh my....what big (hand) palm? you have there alien.

I'm not a big fan of alien movies but casting of Amy and Jeremy intrigued me to give this flick a chance and let’s just say, I was sorely disappointed. The rave reviews by others didn’t seem to strike the same feeling in me. Both Amy and Jeremy were much better in The Hustle communicating with other rather than trying to ‘interact’ with the ‘sotong’ like aliens. The movie was too slow paced to my liking, I almost dozed off few times. Add that with symbols, maths and in no time, I felt like a ‘Martian’ myself trying to figure out the story. If this movie was trying to send a message to me, I totally missed it or perhaps it didn’t arrive quite well to my head.

Errrr.....so yeah....what's the purpose of this movie again???

Reminder – Think twice about watching another alien movie in the future ok Mani. Plus coming from the Director of both Sicario  and Prisoners, I should have known better to give this a miss. Oh well....

The Icebreaker Review

Tsk tsk tsk 

The Icebreaker Review - *Warning – this is a Russian dubbed into English movie.

Your Russian shipmates. 

If you are feeling hot as in warm not hot--sexy and want to ‘experience’ some freezing temperature, by all means…try to sit your arse thru this film based on Russian cargo ship getting caught in Antarctic for over hundred (100) days. Can the crew make it out alive?

Case of cheated by the poster.

It could have turned into a master-piece but what we got was a half baked and overly undercooked movie instead. I almost wanted the maker of this movie to suffer a slow chilly death. Bluek.

Your Russian cast. 

Moral of the story – Don’t be fooled by a movie poster. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Why Him? – Review

Why Him? – Review – James Franco wanting to be a paedophile (well…not quite but almost)

Just ignore them and eat your paper N

An old school printing company owner, Ned Fleming (Bryan Cranston) who is fast losing his business over the much more advance digital world is shocked when he finds out his goodie two-shoe daughter, Stephanie (Zoey Deutch) have been dating a very loud and brass Laird Mayhew (James Franco). The break the ice, she invites her family members so they could spend some time together. What happens next is funny, weird to downward awkward situations with both parties trying to adjust their lives around the newfound relationship.

Introducing your future son-in-law Dad. 

Remember when Bryan used to be Malcom’s dad? Now just change the situation turning Malcom into a girl and its pretty much the same thing that would have had happened. Meanwhile, James  keeps turning his acting skills into more creepy performance one movie after another. I wonder where did the Oscar nominee for 127 Hours has gone to and overtaken by this overgrown prankster wannabe. Sigh…what a waste of talent. This movie might come as another version of ‘Meet The Parents’ starring Ben Stiller not long ago but with much more crude jokes. You may laugh at some while also cringe at the rest. If you are easily turned off by bad jokes, then stay away from it.

Why James why

Enough with the crappy flicks James, please look at your brother Dave and start making proper films again please.

Passengers Review

Pretty good picture editing ey?

Passengers Review – What happens when Katniss and Star Lord get on board the same ship?

Hello....is it us you looking for? 

Jim (Chris Pratt) is one of the thousands of passengers on board the state of the art space ship, Avalon heading to a new planet. However due to a malfunction, Jim’s hibernation pod awakes him ninety (90) years before he could reach the destination. Left with no choice, Jim at the beginning contemplate to kill himself out of the loneliness until he notices Aurora (Jennifer Lawrence). He deliberately spoils her pot so she would be awaken and accompany him. Aurora without knowing the truth at first also panics just as Jim did but soon accepts her fate and enjoys her time with Jim until she finds out the truth. As time passes by the duo encounter bigger and dangerous problem with the ship. Left with no choice, they must work together and find a solution so that the rest of the passengers can continue their journey unharmed.

Should have just remained as Star Lord and Katnis.

The decision to cast the current Hollywood IT stars, Chris and Jennifer might seem like a good idea except for the lack of romantic chemistry between them, perhaps it’s just me but Jennifer does not strike as a writer to me. After watching her kick arse in all of the previous films, Aurora didn’t quite sit well with me. Whereas Chris was a good choice as lost lonely boy in space. The storyline gets kinda tiring after a while, that the so called climax went pass just another scene to me. The technology used felt like an updated version from previous space travel films. Nothing much to shout about that makes this one special.

Can we put the memory of making this movie behind us please?

If I were to catch this movie by accident after the theare release, I might skip that channel and watch something else instead. Better luck next time Chris and Jen.

Eloise Review

Watchu got there girl? 

Eloise Review – Another horror movie…or is it?

The place...that place...

Jacob Martin (Chace Crawford) who is estranged from his father finds out that he had since passed away leaving a mass fortune with Jacob being the only beneficiary. The catch is for Jacob to provide his deceased ‘aunt’s’ death certificate which is filed at a mental asylum, Eloise that was burned down almost thirty (30) years ago. After failing to get the document in the ‘right way’ and not having patience to inherit the wealth, Jacob decides to obtain death certificate by breaking into the facility with the help of his childhood friend, Dell (Brandon T. Jackson). Jacob also gets an extra hand by convincing Scott (P.J. Byrne) along with his sister, Pia (Eliza Dushku) whose mother used to work as a nurse at the facility to join them. Just as Jacob gets his hands on the precious paper, all hell breaks loose as Eloise unleash a deadly dark secret that happened there before Jacob was born. Can they get out alive or end up being part of the deadly dark secret all over again?

Once you check in...you can never check out

With such an interesting premise, this movie fell flat from the word go. The storyline is simply cringe worthy and you might find yourself shaking your head in disbelief more than once. Luckily I managed to control my annoyed emotions or else, I would have yelled a few times trying to stop the stupid kids more making one mistake after another. Provided with quite a talented cast, the Director failed to make use of their good acting skills but instead just let it go to waste. Tsk tsk…the camerawork was also a pain in butt with cheap shots trying but fail to achieve its target to scare the audience.

Crap crappy movie. 

Give this a crap miss and save your hard earned money. Spend your precious time to watch some other movie instead. You have been warned.

The Great Wall Review

Matt with his Chinese mates

 The Great Wall Review – After getting rescued from Mars, Matt Damon travels to China to ‘trade’ some gunpowder.

Wait...is this the reunion dinner? 

William (Matt Damon) and Tovar (Pedro Pascal) are the only survivors after their troops get ambushed by bandits nearby China. They hide inside a cave only to be attacked some shadowy monsters. During the clash, William managed to slash the monster’s hand. The following day the duo gets captured by Chinese soldiers who want to execute them for being outlaws. However, after William shows the severed hand of the monster, the General halt the order and take them in as prisoners instead. Just as they were being led to the cell, warning comes thru that the Great Wall is under attack. Both William and Tovar witness how the soldiers try to protect the barrier from getting breached. Yet some of the beast manage to get pass the fighters and although shocked at first, William and Tovar team up to foil the sudden attack. Pretty soon they learn about the monster called Tao Tei that attack every sixty (60) years. Meanwhile there is another ‘outsider’, Sir Ballard (Willem Dafoe) among the Chinese waiting for his opportunity to steal the gunpowder for himself sees William and Tovar as his chance for escape. Ballard strikes a deal with Tovar but William is hesitant to leave and wants to stay and help the army fight Tao Tei instead. With another imminent big assault, will-pun intended William stay back and help his new found friends or runaway with their precious gunpowder? 

Ready to take on some cinapek monsters! 

Talk about a mammoth task of capturing the majestic Great Wall in its full glory. The Director managed to combine fact and fiction into his effort. The storyline however is not that great but still quite entertaining. The Asian cast consisting the who and who of Chinese film industry do a pretty decent job with their respective roles while although the movie suffered the recently highlighted ‘white-washing’ cast of Matt Damon, he really held his torch high as William. The grand scale matches the hefty budget the studio shelled out for the production of the movie. The ‘monsters’ did look more ugly even scary actually but all is forgiven once they show sign of intelligence their human counterpart.

Nope....this is not Cappodicia. 

Please be informed that this is not a historical movie about The Great Wall but rather a fantasy work of imagination so leave your history book out and just enjoy Matt Damon slay some Tao Tei albeit his horrible hair style.