Unbeatable Review

Ready for loads of punching action!!! Kapow!!!

Unbeatable Review – Ok before the usual review, here’s some rambling first. I can’t remember the last time I went to cinema to catch a Chinese movie…wait let me think…hmm…mmm…nope…seriously memang tak ingat, so when I got invitation to catch this Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) film, I was contemplating if I should let it pass. What a big loss that would have been! It was nice to hear Chinese dialects being used in the movie as it switched location between Hong Kong and Macau. The usual Mandarin and Cantonese (which I understand bits and pieces) plus few other Hongkey languages.

Don't play play woah!!!

The story revolves around Fai who is has been Champion in the boxing world that got carried away and end up with huge debts. He gets a chance to turn his life around when his friend offers him job as a janitor cum fitness instructor at his Gym. Fai rents a room with a women, Gwen who has suffered from serious trauma and her witty daughter, Dan. While minding his business, a determined young ‘leng chai’ enters his life bugging him to be his ‘Sifu’ and teach him how to become a MMA fighter. This ‘leng chai’, Qi have his own reason to ‘risk’ his handsome face getting punched. His father was a rich man gone bankrupt and succumb into drinking binge and Qi is trying to send message to his Dad to ‘get up’ and move on.

Bonding like no other

Fai finally gives way and train Qi while helping Gwen and Dan around the house. He forms family kinda bond with this three people. Qi wins a few matches but when he was so close to score the big prize, he gets whacked ‘kao kao’ and ends up almost losing his life. The silver lining was Qi’s father realize his son’s determination and comes to his senses. Meanwhile, for Fai, things at ‘home’ starts to fall apart when his ‘Ah long’ locate his ‘hiding’ place makes a big mess. In order to recover from the entire crappy situation, Fai decides to get back into training and enter the competition himself. I can’t write much or else it would spoil the story but one thing for sure this movie is worth watching, in my opinion anyway.

Amek ko! Amek ko! Amek ko!

The cast was so damn ‘Hooooow yeah’ one. Fai, Qi, Gwen, Dan…heck even the ‘kurang ajar’ cum ‘ganas’ punya contender played his part damn well. Fai as former boxing Champion turned loser and then emerging as a winner, Qi as rookie taekwando cinapek into instant MMA fighter, Gwen as a devastated wife cum disturbed mother and Dan as annoying but cute as button little wonder. Insert jokes, slight drama and loads of punching, kicking, ‘upper cut’, ‘locking’ fighting scenes and you get a Chinese version of almost the Hollywood flick ‘Million Dollar Baby’.  

Meh sini ko!!! Taste my kick!!!

Thank you  Churp Churp for the #ChurpremiereVIP invite!!! Later invite some more please.  :D

Perks of being a Churpie by ChurpChurp!!!

Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters Review

From lighting thief to travel to Sea of Monsters

Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters Review – Harry Potter and the gang continue their journey….eh wait a minute, salah movie pulak! Although I had a dejavu feeling following Percy Jackson, his half-brother Tyson, besties Annabeth and Grover trying the look for a ‘cure’ that is killing their earlier dead friend, Thalia pine tree that is protecting the Olympians from being killed by evil forces. Unfortunately some of the Olympians have turned into ‘death eater’ eh I mean dark side.

Percy and his posse'

See what I mean? It’s like Harry Potter but it’s not Harry Potter. Heck they even have this bad arse villain, Kronos who have been ‘banished’ but is being revived by Luke (yup…much like Malfoy reviving Voldemort). Percy rides of Hipokampus into Sea of Monsters (it was Hippograf in Potter series) to stop Kronos. Perhaps I just miss Hermoine and Ron ey? The gang travel though modern and mythical settings in order to stop the resurrection of Kronos. Throw in some CGI and teen lines with little adult supervision (Stanley Tucci as Mr. D)  plus some father and son conflict, a friend scarifying herself to save her friends and a slight twist in the end you got a full fledge flick for the new age group target.   

New Demi-God in town!

The repeat cast for this movie, Logan Lerman shows some promising talent to carry on the torch as Percy for a few more sequels together with the rest of the cast. I’m not sure how many books are there for this series but so far, it’s been entertaining…and let’s hope it stays on course till Percy figures out what he had to do when he reach 20 years old.

Look out for the sequel soon...

Till then enjoy the ‘exotic’ creatures being thrown at each upcoming adventure Percy Jackson has to undertake. Joined by his other Godly friends defending the Earth from whatever mishap waiting to happen. He is no Harry Potter but he will do for now till the next boy wonder takes over the big screen.  

The Smurfs 2 review

Let's Smurf this one more time!

The Smurfs 2 review – Word of caution, after watching Smurf 2 you might go “Hackus leaking... Hackus don’t like leaking” or “La la la la laaaaa... sing a happy song… (Not that it’s bad), I mean it is The Smurfs after all. I remember I used to wake up early on weekends to catch Papa Smurf and the gang fight off Gargamel and his mischievous cat, Azreal.

Know your Smurf!

As this is a sequel, you will see the familiar Smurfs such as Papa, Clumsy, Brainy, Grouchy, Smurfette and the rest at their mushroom home. Meanwhile, Gargamel have hit all-time fame performing magic tricks in Paris using the left over Smurf-essence. Smurf’s human friend, Patrick and Grace are parents to a boy called ‘Blue’….geee….I wonder where they go the idea for the name from. Smurfette has a recurring ‘nightmare’ that she does not belong with the rest of the Smurf. Papa Smurf convince her otherwise.

Smurf goes French!

On her birthday while the rest of the blue beings was planning for her surprise birthday party. Gargamel sends of over Vexy, one half of the Naughties he created to kidnap Smurfette in order the get the formula to produce Smurf-essence. Papa and rest of the gang travel to find Patrick to help them with their quest to bring back Smurfette. All the while, Patrick is faced with his own father issue when his step-dad decides to meddle into things. The whole gang then travels to Paris to figures out Gargamel’s evil plan to take over the world. Yup, it’s not rocket science, just simple story line for current generation to enjoy almost two hours in the cinema with their parents.

Krezi kitty!!!

The voice talent was spot on as usual, Katy Perry’s ‘talking voice’ is totally different from her singing tone. While Christina Ricci’s contribution to be Vexy was barely recognizable (in a good way). The rest of Smurf ‘sound’ matched their personality of the blue fellas. The human characters were also well-matched. Hank Azaria could do no wrong as the bad wizard. Special mention for Azreal for ‘his’ witty reaction to Gargamel’s sometimes silly mishaps. Since it’s the school holidays, take you little ones and re-live your own childhood memory once again.  

The Place Beyond The Pines Review

Errr....what are we looking at ah?

The Place Beyond The Pines Review – First thing that drew me was the thought of watching Ryan Gosling in a blonde hair as a bike rider. Next, it was Eva Mendes because it’s been quite a while since I saw her in big screen. Ok…Bradley Cooper also was part of attraction lar. I read through few reviews and some of it was ok so despite knowing it was two hours and twenty minutes long I convinced myself I could sit till the end credit.

Yup...let's do another 'indie' flick...

The film was not half-bad, in fact it was not that bad at all, what almost killed me was the pace of the story was too slow for my liking. After about halfway I couldn’t wait to leave the cinema. I kept looking at my watch thinking that this flick was one of the longest I had to sit through.

The movie starts off with ‘Handsome Luke’ (Ryan) portrayed as a travelling biker in carnival who have a fling with Romina (Eva) and ends up having his son without Luke's knowledge. By the time he finds out, Romina have already moved on and lives with another guy. Feeling obligated to ‘provide’ for his family, Luke resorts to criminal way of robbing banks to buy things for his ‘family’ but as it’s been said...‘sepandai-pandai tupai melompat, akhirnya jatuh ke bumi juga’.

Happy family???

Luke’s destiny gets sealed by Avery Cross (a very out-of-high-school-looking Bradley Cooper) and the story moves focus to how Cross uses his cop ‘skills’ to climb up the ladder into becoming a big shot. He has his own problem in the form on his delinquent son who somehow befriends Luke’s son. As fate would have it, this cause conflict in the whole relationship between the father and son and the friend.

Fate of coincidence?

Ryan was all macho wacho as a fast riding biker while Eva was under-utilized. Bradley however shined his way as a cunning cop aiming for higher position. The dudes who played Luke and Cross sons was well done by upcoming talent. Some of the supporting casts also did well. What more can I say? It is good movie, just make sure you watch it at a right time. Or else you will be moaning and counting for the moment till the end credit rolls.