On Movies

My Review on 3 Chinese New Year Holiday Movies

2010-03-06T22:09:00.000-08:00

Tiger Wohoo! (大日子)
Rating: *** (Out of 4)

Few gave it a chance initially. The first locally (Malaysian) produced Chinese New Year themed movie failed to get a cinema release slot during the all-important Chinese New Year (CNY) 2010 season, ironic for a CNY-themed movie. It was only given a limited release on selected cinemas, one month before the actual CNY festival.

And then there was miracle.

Good word of mouth spread. The movie played to sold-out crowd for a good 3-4 weeks. Fans were screaming on facebook saying that it was hard to purchase tickets. The film eventually chalked up an estimated RM 4 million in ticket sales, a terrific figure in the context of the Malaysian market, a phenomenal achievement for a locally produced Chinese language film.

Is the film good?

Story wise, it resembles that of the Taiwanese film 'Cape No. 7 (海角七号)', a tried-and-tested coming-of-age story. 'Tiger Woohoo!' is not the most exquisite piece of film making. Nevertheless, it does have its charm, and that was important. It is charming to the point of making itself a winning crowd pleaser, despite its flaws.

The cast as a whole are new-comers, so do not expect Oscar-calibre performances here. Still, one of them stood out. Chen Keat Yoke as village girl Ah Lian. That was an astonishingly good acting performance for a first-timer.

True Legend (苏乞儿)
Rating: **1/2 (Out of 4)

Cliched and formulaic, 'True Legend' is a recycling exercise of many familiar martial art genre devices. One can easily spot the resemblance to films like 'Fearless (霍元甲)', 'Ip Man (叶问)', 'Fist of Fury (精武门)' and many more.

Still, as a whole, 'True Legend' is a descent pop corn movie. It is good enough if you have nothing to do for your holidays, though it is not something spectacular or memorable. The movie has a great villain, and that saves the day. I guess a cliched revenge drama like this needs a great villain. A great villain somehow compensates for all the glaring flaws, and it pumps up your blood during the climatic fight sequence.

In 'True Legend', we are given a villain so creepy and bizarre that it seems like something you expect to see in a Hollywood superhero movies like Spiderman or Batman.

That, really is the saving grace for this film. The fight sequence is uneven, good and exciting only when it is staged organically without the annoying 3D visual effects. Leading man Zhao Wenzhuo is capable of putting up a good fight, but slumped into embarrassingly bad acting when the script requires his character to go through some emotional upheaval.

Little Big Soldier (大兵小将)
Rating: ** (Out of 4)

Subject matter has potential. In fact, it is probably the only film during this 2010 CNY season that offers a dash of originality with its subject matter.

Unfortunately, it remains just that, a potential. The potential was not developed, and the film falls flat. This promising material was not given justice with the kind of writing and directing it deserves. This is a prime example of originality alone do not make a good film. It has to go hand-in-hand with good craftsmanship.

There is so much unfulfilled potential in it. It could be made into an anti-war drama that is upbeat in its tone. But the filmmakers shows little ambition towards that end, focusing instead on staging Jacky Chan's trademark (and tired) comedic action sequence.

The film lacks suspense, and it is barely funny. More importantly, it lacks charm. In a film with only 2 main characters, one has to wonder why they came about as so plain and uninteresting despite given so much screen time. Whereas a film with an ensemble cast like 'Tiger Woohoo!' was able to create interesting characters that charmed us, with much less screen time per character.

Surely writing and directing had made all the difference.

American Beauty

2010-02-20T00:31:00.000-08:00

Rating: ***1/2 (out of 4)
Cast: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Chris Cooper
Director: Sam Mendez
Year of Release: 1999

To most of us, there will come a time when you become disillusioned with your repetitive life existence. It wouldn't help when people around you, and society at large, constantly putting pressure on what you should do, and what you shouldn't do. 'There are rules in life, you need to have structure and discipline!' said Colonel Fitts (Chris Cooper), while disciplining his son, Ricky.

Combined with insecurity over perception of lack of success, you are bound to yearn for flashes of freedom, to do what your heart tells you.

If you are in this situation, known as mid-life crisis, I supposed there are two ways you can respond to it. Either you just shrugged, and accept it as part of life, or you snap, and spiral down to self destructive rebellion.

Miles Davis (Paul Giamatti), the hero from Alexander Payne's comedy masterpiece 'Sideways', took the former approach, just as most of us will do in real life. Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), took the latter approach.

The result is one of rebellious fantasy, an anti-conformation fable that starts off funnily, but by half way turns dark, and ended with a tragedy.

Lester impulsively quit his job, and took on a lowly paid job grilling burgers in a fast food joint. 'I am looking for a job with least amount of responsibility', he said, going head-on against his family's demand on him as a family bread winner. He began to work out, lifting weights, smoking pot and listening to Pink Floyd rock music that he once loved, to rediscover young adulthood. He even lust again his daughter's underage teenage friend, Angela (Mena Suvari).

Morally wrong? Lester wouldn't care. In his own words, 'This is the high point of my day'.

The ultimate freedom came at a price, as Lester shall learn, but we suspect it is all well worth it for Lester, trading brief, complete freedom for years of future repetitive existence, a life which he proclaimed as 'In a way, I'm dead already'.

Lester Burnham is a complex character to play, and Kevin Spacey carried it to perfection. Annette Bening's acting, as his wife Carolyn, is theatrical and farcical, perhaps intentionally so, as director Sam Mendez is a theater veteran. 'American Beauty' was his feature film debut, a fairy tale debut which won him 5 Oscars, including Best Picture.

Due to its fantasy nature, 'American Beauty' is not as emotionally moving as Alexander Payne's 'Sideways'. Nevertheless, it is on its own league, questioning the way we live our life, how rules and structures have made us forget about the joy of living the life. It's a pity, because, to quote from the film, 'There's so much beauty in life'.

* 'American Beauty' won 5 Oscars in the 2000 Academy Awards, for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. It was also nominated for Best Actress, Best Editing and Best Original Score

Paranormal Activity

2010-01-22T01:46:00.000-08:00

Rating: ***1/2 (Out of 4)
Cast: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat
Director: Oren Peli

'Don't see it alone'

That's the tag line of 'Paranormal Activity'. For the faint-hearted, do take it seriously. I kid you not. This is a very scary horror movie, I haven't had a horror experience this scary at the cinema for years. In recent times, the horror genre have always seen more disappointment than excitement. In the obsession for expensive looking special effects, true horror fans can't help but to lament that the film industry seems to have lose the touch to evoke genuine fear.

Here we are, there's this little film made with a shoestring budget of USD 15,000, with only 2 actors (and a third actor with very minor presence), and set entirely in a residential home, and with absence of any special effect. It is amazing that it effectively evokes genuine fear with such minimalist feature.

It uses a mockementary narrative style to tell a haunted house story, to surprisingly good effect. I was somewhat sceptical when I first heard about the hype over 'Paranormal Activity'. Based on my experience of watching the other mockementary styled horror films, such as 'Blair Witch Project' and 'Cloverfield', I thought this method, while lending realism to the story, seems to suffer from difficulties in shaping characters, constraint by its need to present the events in the story as footage discovered after the events took place. As a result, we often knew little about the characters to make the whole viewing experience an absorbing one. That was what I felt about 'Blair Witch Project'. While I admire it as a landmark film, the horror experience was a muted one.

The story revolves around only Micah and Katie, a young couple. 'Paranormal Activity' cleverly arranged a self-introduction sequence by Katie during a consultation session with a psychic, so we knew enough about her as a person to sustain our interest throughout the film. Katie Featherston is an important element which make the film works. She is vulnerable, scared as hell, and helpless. We felt that.

The same could not be said to the Micah character. In fact, it is the weak link of this film, preventing it from achieving greatness. Micah is like a stubborn, mischievous boy who just wouldn't listen., and some of his behavior is just not very plausible. Despite being warned by the phychic not to communicate with the demon with a Ouija board, that's exactly what he did. There is also this difficulties to justify his obsession with his camera. At times, the camera seemed to be present when it shouldn't have been. Although it had to be acknowledged that this is a pretty common problem with other mockumentary horror films.

Despite its flaws, 'Paranormal Activity' scores in what it intend to do, which is to scare. It is a horror experience most of us can relate to. I just know that when end of the year comes, when it is time to compile my favourite films for 2010, 'Paranormal Activity' will be there in the list.

Best films of 2009‏

2010-01-14T23:46:00.000-08:00

This is not an authoritative list, it is simply my 10 favorites based on only the films I have seen in 2009. Every year, there are a good number of critically acclaimed films which do not get released in Malaysia, so I wouldn't be able to consider them in this list.

Best films in 2009

1. Departures (Okuribito)
2. Inglourious Basterds
3. District 9
4. Avatar
5. Bodyguards and Assassins (十月围城)
6. Vengeance (復仇)
7. Forever Enthralled (梅兰芳)
8. Shinjuku Incident (新宿事件)
9. Drag Me to Hell
10. Red Cliff (Pt 1 & 2) 赤壁

Worst films in 2009

1. Transfomers: Revenge of the Fallen
2. 2012

Avatar

2010-01-14T23:32:00.000-08:00

Rating: ***1/2 (out of 4)
Cast: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver
Director: James Cameron

James Cameron has a taste for risky projects. He goes for mind-boggling budgeted projects. His 'Titanic' broke record as the most expensive film ever made in its time. Here he is again, after a more than 10 years hiatus from making feature film, 'Avatar' reportedly cost USD 300 million to make.

Hollywood directors are increasingly adept at burning money for special effects, often seemed like a massive waste. James Cameron is not one of them. In fact, he is a rare breed. He spends big money, giving the audience the kind of visual effects feast that they expect, and yet keeps his feet firmly on the ground and not get carried away. He is aware of his essential duty as a filmmaker to tell a story well, by establishing characters that connect to the audience, so that the expensive special effects are there with a purpose, in the context of the story. It matters to the audience what happened to the characters, who win, who lose, who died and who survived.

It was a USD 300 million well spent.

At 163 minutes, it doesn't feel long. It is absorbing, although not right from the beginning. It grows on you. It took its time to establish and develop its characters, and succeeded in sucking the audience into the story. When the final battle is staged, we were absorbed, and we were heartbroken when somebody got killed, we rejoiced with the final victory. (not a spoiler I supposed, a big-budgeted Hollywood production always end with the good guy winning)

Story wise, it isn't new. It is similar to 'The Last Samurai' and 'Dances with Wolves'. It is a tried-and-tested formula, but having said that, it is not probable to expect the studio who invested USD 300 million to experiment with an innovative untested story arc. Formula get re-used again and again simply because it works, so long as the film is well-crafted.

'Avatar' sure works, it is a crowd-pleaser, the kind of blockbuster that pulls in even the indifferent movie-goer who seldom visit the cinema, because the people around them are saying, 'You have got to watch 'Avatar''. And, it will not disappoint. Audience who attended the screening will feel satisfied, and fulfilling. It is not just a rousing entertainment. It is an effective entertainment with substance. It sends its green message, and it plays as a parable of human world conflict, such as the middle east conflict and the war against terrorism, or the exploitation of the native people by foreign intruder, or the relentless human greed under capitalism.

'Avatar' is a perfect example of how a mega film budget should be spent. We have been seeing too many awful special effects extravaganza in 2009, 'Transformers 2' and '2012' being some of the worst. 'Avatar' gave me a new hope; Hollywood still has someone who knows how to craft a good, expensive blockbuster.

If only we have more James Cameron.

Muallaf

2009-12-31T02:43:00.000-08:00

Rating: *** (out of 4)
Cast: Sharifah Amani, Sharifah Aleysha, Brian Yap
Director: Yasmin Ahmad
Language: In English, Malay with English subtitle

‘Muallaf’ from the late Yasmin Ahmad, who past away on July 2009, was actually made before her final film ‘Talentime’. It was not released until now due to its problem with the Malaysian censorship authorities. In any case, it is strangely fitting as a final release, because the film represents Yasmin’s voice, her belief, her views and her philosophy. This is true for all her other films as well, but never had it been as explicit as in ‘Muallaf’.

It tells the story of 2 Muslim sisters, Rohani (Sharifah Amani) and Rohana (Sharifah Aleysha), who ran away from their wealthy but abusive father, and reside in a vacant bungalow in Ipoh. Rohana has a peculiar habit of reciting some strange random numbers when confronted by others. Others were disturbed by that strange habit. What the numbers actually meant, I’ll not disclose in this review. Anyway, the sisters befriended Brian Goh (Brian Yap), a young teacher in a Catholic school, whom the sisters nicknamed ‘Mr. Miserable’, because he never smiled in class. It tuned out that all 3 of them are in a similar predicament; they were traumatized by mistreatment by their loved ones, their family. Brian, who was raised in a Christian family, had drifted away from his religious faith due to that. The sisters, however, were more positive and forgiving.

‘Muallaf’, as a film, certainly has depth. At its surface layer, it is touching as a human drama, about 3 traumatized souls who met and console each other. Yasmin’s films always give us characters that engage us. Watching it, we care for them. Sharifah Amani, in particular, shines as Rohani. She has come a long way. Her debut in ‘Sepet’ was a discovery, and she has progressed steadily ever since, growing in maturity and grace.

But ‘Muallaf’ is not just a human drama, it is much more ambitious than that. Yasmin wanted to make a statement about what religious faith is all about. I happened to read some articles about her personal life, and one of her friend recalled that he saw Yasmin weeping at one quiet corner of her office, while praying to God to forgive the soul who had hurt her. That was what got portrayed here in ‘Muallaf’, through the sisters Rohani and Rohana. I also happened to watch a TV interview with Yasmin’s mother, who recalled that Yasmin was such a loving child that she will immediately apologized to her mother if she happened to raise her voice a little bit against her mother. That was also what got portrayed here in the film, when Brian raised his voice while talking to his mother on the phone, Rohani who was besides him, asked him never to talk to his mother like that again.

It’s about compassion, it’s about forgiveness, and it’s about not taking your loved ones for granted. You can’t fault a noble theme like that, but as I judge a movie not based on its subject matter, but based on how effectively it presents its subject matter, I felt that while ‘Muallaf’ works commendably as a touching human drama, but in its more ambitious thematic preoccupation of social commentary, it is ok but not great. My little problem with it is that, it feels preachy. It is as if Yasmin was trying too hard to tell us her message. The cinema language is at its most powerful when it indirectly awakens viewers to its message, without explicitly telling them. Yasmin’s own ‘Gubra’, is one such film. In ‘Gubra’, it ends with scenes of people from different religions praying in their respective place of worship, and we realize that everyone is looking for God in their own ways. How powerful.

In ‘Muallaf’, the same message is told, but explicitly in words, told by the character Brother Anthony. The film also quotes direct words from the scriptures in a number of occasions, this is again explicit; and Rohani explicitly tells Brian not to raise his voice against his mother.

This is all noble indeed, but when you try too hard, it came across as preachy and it diminishes the power of the cinema language. ‘Muallaf’ is fairly good, but ‘Gubra’ remains the best Yasmin Ahmad film, in my opinion, followed closely by ‘Sepet.

* ‘Muallaf’ won the Best Asian-Middle Eastern Film Award (special mention) in the 2008 Tokyo International Film Festival

Zombieland

2009-12-31T02:41:00.000-08:00

Rating: *** (out of 4)
Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Bill Murray, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin
Director: Ruben Fleischer

If zombie movie is a sub genre of the broader horror genre, then zombie comedies like ‘Zombieland’ and ‘Shaun of the dead’ (2004) had been gradually claiming a place as a ‘sub sub genre’ under the zombie movies sub genre.

Zombie movie, was of course pioneered by the genre master George A. Romero, the man behind the ‘Dead’ series; ‘Night of the Living Dead’ (1968), ‘Dawn of the Dead’ (1979), ‘Day of the Dead’ (1985), ‘Land of the Dead’ (2005) and ‘Diary of the Dead’ (2008). His ‘Dead’ series are considerable films, using zombies as instruments for social commentary.

In more recent times, zombie comedies have sustained zombies’ place in modern pop culture, thanks to movies like ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and now ‘Zombieland’.

‘Zombieland’ is a funny movie. It tells the story of 4 reluctant partners who stick together to survive post apocalyptic United States of Zombieland. The plot took the form of a road movie,and to a lesser extend a love comedy. There are 4 main characters; the cowardly nerd Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), the cool zombie slayer Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), the con sisters Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). The characterization is fairly rich which is a good thing.

There is a hilarious cameo role by Bill Murray playing himself, nice one.

‘Zombieland’ isn’t a spectacular movie. It works in what it intend to do, which is to be a funny zombie comedy with fairly likable characters, their story together while undergoing a road trip to a reputedly zombie-free California amusement park. The motive behind the journey probably doesn’t make much sense. It doesn’t matter, it is a little bit dumb but fun.

2046

2009-12-17T22:36:00.000-08:00

Rating: *** (out of 4)
Cast: Tony Leung, Gong Li, Faye Wong, Zhang Ziyi, Carina Lau
Director: Wong Kar Wai
Year of Release: 2005

This is a film that I'll suggest you to give it a second try, if you feel that you don't get it after your first viewing, like I did. I was less than impressed on my first viewing. I thought to myself, if '2046', like so many of Wong Kar Wai's films, is about loneliness and loss, how can I empathize with Chow Mo Wan (Tony Leung), a womanizer who seemed to be having hell of a time having a series of affairs with 4 different gorgeously beautiful women? Besides, its almost chaotic, non-linear narrative structure certainly did not help, and I can't quite get the whole futuristic idea. Well, at least not in my first viewing.

I gave it another try, and boy it was quite a difference on second viewing.

Roger Ebert said in his review of '2046':
'All of these relationship are seen in carefully composed shots that seem to be remembering the characters more than seeing them'.

That, I think, is the key to understand what '2046' is all about. It is primarily a meditation on memory and regret over unrequited love. Wong's movies are about tone and mod. He uses light, colors, sumptuous visuals, and music to evoke the the tone and mood he desires. Story, plot and narrative are secondary in Wong's films. So, the fact that you would have known what happened in the story on your second viewing actually helps. It frees up your sensors to feel the tone and mood, along with your heart.

And who is to say that a womanizer does not have room for feeling and serious love? In '2046', Chow struggled to get over the loss of Su Li Zhen (Maggie Cheung), his love interest from 'In the Mood for Love'. So much so that when he met a mysterious woman (Gong Li) with the same name, he subconsciously take a emotional relationship with her in order to compensate for his longing for the first Su Li Zhen. He had a chance for a serious relationship with Bai Ling (Zhang Ziyi), who genuinely liked him. Instead he rejected her but remained a good friend and a close confidant of Bai Ling. Chow then took on a liking on Wang Jing Wen (Faye Wong), daughter of his landlord, Mr. Wang, but that ended up as another unrequited love in Chow's memory.

The futuristic idea, I understand it better on my second viewing, though may be not entirely. It is a metaphor on Chow's memory of his experience lodging in Mr. Wang's hotel in Hong Kong, and the women he met there and had relationship with. How do I know that? The hotel manager and the train captain is the same person, and the waitress on the train look like the same women he had true feeling on, while lodging in Mr. Wang's hotel. There was the rejection by the train waitress (the Wang Jing Wen look-alike), representing the sting of rejection on Chow's part over an unrequited love. So, the train to 2046 is a metaphor on Chow's longing on his past memory. The fact that nothing changes on the train is a manifestation on Chow's regret over his unrequited love, and how he wanted to recapture the past and suspend the memory. But he later found that, you may be able to re-capture the past in the train, but you can't change it. The past he re-captured is still one of rejection and regret.

Wider in scope and ambition, '2046' may not be as accessible as 'In the Mood for Love'. It is easy to empathize with the protagonists' memory and regret, when it is about 2 person set in single space and time, as in 'In the Mood for Love'. '2046' spans multiple time space, 4 different women, and 2 cities (HK and Singapore), told in a non-linear narration structure. It is understandable if it overwhelmed its viewers. To those who is willing to give it a second viewing, try to feel it with your heart and you shall be well rewarded.

* '2046' was an official selection (in competition) for the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. It also won 6 awards in the 2005 Hong Kong Film Award for best actor, best actress, best art direction, best cinematography, best costume design and make up and best original film score.

2012

2009-12-17T21:54:00.000-08:00

Rating: * (out of 4)
Cast: John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Woody Harrelson, Danny Glover, Thandie Newton
Director: Roland Emmerich

Dear Mr. Roland Emmerich,

Sorry, I have nothing against you, but I think your '2012' sucks. This is regrettable as I actually like some of your earlier works. I enjoyed your 'Independence Day', and I also quite like your 'The Day After Tomorrow'. I hated your '3000 BC', I wished it was just one of your off-day, but your '2012' is just as bad.

What's going on with you? You are certainly capable of making decently entertaining commercial blockbusters, but you seemed to have got carried away showing off your expertise in destrucive show piece. You see, earth-shattering special effects alone don't make a disaster movie works. It needs to be accompanied by the right mood and tone (tension, intrigue, suspense), but '2012' evokes none of it. Hey, your 'Independence Day' did alright on that account, with the giant alien spaceship hovering on the sky, it was tensed as hell.

Instead, in '2012', you gave us a goofy premise, and plenty of cheesy moments. The core of the earth is heating up? Come on, if you can't come out with a more believable premise, just leave it unexplained. Our own imagination would take care of that, and dare I say it, to better effect.

Your set-up scene in '2012' just fails to connect. There was no tension, no intrigue, no suspense. It shouldn't be because strange events were happening, cracks were appearing on Earth's surface. When your President (Danny Glover) announced that the Earth is coming to an end, it didn't resonate. Woo...the end of the world huh, so what?

Why is that? I have said it and will say it again: you got so carried away with your destructive show piece till you neglect the basic elements of film making.

When the destruction started, the whole 2 hour of it, it doesn't save the film. It's so over-the-top that it looks, dare I say it, fake. You are matching Michael Bay's expertise in sensory overkill, and that's not a good role model to follow.

Dear Mr. Roland Emmerich,

When I was watching your '2012' in my local cinema, I was surrounded by kids (school holidays, you see), and they are restless throughout the screening, clearly bored. When the show ended, they cheered. 'Yeah...mummy, it's the end!'

'Of course, the are just kids', you may want to say.

But I'll remind you that something's not right. You are making a mainstream blockbusters that should appeal to the mass, including the kids. You are not making a deep films that kids cannot understand. I still remember the screenings I attended for 'Jurassic Park', and even your 'Independence Day'. Boy, the kids were glued to their seats. See, don't underestimate the kids.

And...when the show ended and the credits rolled, I saw adults yawning besides me.

This is it

2009-11-26T22:50:00.000-08:00

Rating: ** (out of 4)
Director: Kenny Ortega

The media had not been kind to Michael Jackson (MJ).

MJ's later stage of his career had seen the media focusing on his troubled personal life, his looks, his lawsuits, to an extend that a non-fan like me thought that that was more or less what MJ was all about. There had been so much images on the media showing his pale skin, his plastic face and nose, someone once said that MJ was one of the creepiest being on earth.

Or was it?

Here in 'This is it', we see a immensely talented artist in full command of his shows, a master in dance movement with boundless energy. There is not a trace of a man rumored to be too weak to tour. He was on top of everything. Conceiving, directing, producing, singing, dancing; he was the ultimate captain behind the creative aspects of the London concert that never took place. He was the boss.

MJ was surprisingly soft-spoken, always well-mannered to his working crew. There was no sign of any spoilt celebrity tantrum when something went wrong during the rehearsal. 'That's what rehearsals are for', he will say politely to the crew who made the mistake, never raising his voice. Here's a man working tirelessly for the love of his art, while maintaining his humility.

What did he do to deserve such harsh media bashing, I will never quite comprehend. Although 'This is it' could have been 'polished' to certain degree, viewing it I do not think that what we see is a fabricated deception. These are, after all, real documentary video footage.

The greatest joy of the film, is to see how MJ interacted with his working crew. This as close a source we have to gain some insights into his mysterious personality. I wish Kenny Ortega, the director, could have given us more of those, and trim down on the lengthy rehearsal music sequence.

I mean, of course the music is a big part of any musical documentary, and fans will no doubt value it. But for a non-fan, we really wish to know MJ better as a person, we wish to have more insights.

After all, MJ was half-singing for the bulk of the rehearsal, in order to conserve his voice for the actual show.

If there's one thing that struck me, it is how I realized that a negative celebrity image could be result of a one-sided portrayal by the media (to sell more papers I presumed). There are 2 sides to everything, and 'This is it' gave us the professional side of MJ that has been unjustifiably side-stepped by the media for so long.

Walk The Line

2009-11-26T22:10:00.000-08:00

Rating: ***1/2 (out of 4)
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon
Director: James Mangold
Year of Release: 2005

Studio Exec: What's with the black? Looks as if you are going for a funereal'
Cash: 'May be I am'

That sums up the character of the legendary 'Man in black' Johnny Cash. His is one of defiance, determination and boldness.

Musical biopics more or less follow the same story arc. The dream, the initial struggle, the breakthrough, the rise to stardom, the setback, the drugs and booze, and finally picking themselves up again. 'Walk The Line' is very much in that formula, hence this is no inventive film making. But then again most story about musical stars does follow such patterns, so it would be unfair to criticize it just because it is formulaic. What does matter is the execution, how effectively the movie engage us emotionally in its story. In that regard, 'Walk The Line' scores.

'Walk The Line' succeed due to its acting and music. Reese Witherspoon's Oscar winning performance as June Carter is not exactly the kind of eye-catching performance often expected of an award-winning performance. This is a performance that looks ordinary on the surface, but it grows on you. It grows on you because of the emotional subtleties it carries to good effect. June's feeling on Cash, her hesitation to marry him, her sympathy towards him, and her own personal problem with her negative public image (back then, societies are not too kind with women like her who divorced), this is a substantial acting performance by Witherspoon.

Phoenix's Oscar nominated performance as Johnny Cash brings the otherwise ordinary story to a personal level, lending crucial emotional connection to the viewers. We admire his courage, we sympathized with his traumatized life background, his emotional upheaval and his subsequent problems with drug addiction. More so, Phoenix's Cash painted a haunting portrait of a soul threatened by the dark side of fame.

Oh, and the music. It is now a well-known fact that Phoenix and Witherspoon did their own singing in the film. Energetic and lovely, that's what make 'Walk The Line' such a crowd pleasing offering.

* 'Walk The Line' was nominated 5 Oscars in the 2005 Academy Awards, for best actor, best actress, best costume design, best editing and best sound mixing. It won the best actress award for Reese Witherspoon's performance as June Carter.

Inglourious Basterds

2009-10-24T21:40:00.000-07:00

Rating: ***1/2 (out of 4)
Cast: Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Melanie Laurent, Eli Roth, Micheal Fassbender, Diane Kruger
Director: Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino's 'Inglourious Basterds' is a dazzling piece of film making, a further testament to Tarantino's reputation as one of the most inventive filmmaker in business. He has a knack of tackling violent, risky subject matter. He understands, and crafts it into a substantial piece of art. This is in striking contrast to a lot of his lesser peers who merely exploit the violence in making mediocre films.

His works also always comes with a strong sense of auteur; that sharp, delicious dialogue, abundance of film references, delightful musical score accompaniment, all that are trademark Tarantino.

'Inglourious Basterds' is full of all that. The film opens with the first chapter 'Once Upon a Time in Nazi-occupied France', with its title, music and scenery all evoke a reference to Sergio Leone's spaghetti Westerns. In come Christoph Waltz, terrific throughout the film as the cunning yet charming 'the Jew Hunter' Col. Hans Landa. He confronted a farmer suspected of hiding Jews. The whole sequence is a tensed cat-and-mouse game, not by action but by Tarantino sharp dialogue. He leisurely takes his time to let his brilliant dialogue build up its momentum, starting from the Col.'s friendly request for farm milk to an eventual reference to rats. That is vintage Tarantino. One of the hiding Jews, Shosanna (Melanie Laurent) narrowly escaped from the massacre, only to feature later in the film.

The second chapter introduces 'The Basterds', a group of Jewish American on a mission to 'kill the Nazi'. They are headed by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt). Here, Tarantino's trademark stylized violence make its first appearance in the film.

Subsequent chapters shapes up the revenge plot, which is itself a ultimate revenge fantasy only a true film buff like Tarantino is able to come out with. Film reference galore, the basterds was involved in a assassination plot with a German movie star, Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) as a British spy. They also teamed up with a British soldier who is a film critic(!), sent by the British military authority because the mission requires his German film knowledge.

Meanwhile, Shosanna was plotting her own vengeance at a movie theater she operates, using the highly flammable nitrate film prints as a secret weapon. In the run up to the climax, there are more tensed cat-and-mouse espionage sequence, again driven by sharp Tarantino's dialogue. One of which involved Shosanna's nervous encounter with her old nemesis, Col. Hans Landa in a French restaurant, another involved Beidget and the basterds trying to outwit the Nazi in a pub, which eventually ended with a bloody shoot-up.

As for the climax, the two revenge plot converged at Shasanna's movie theater, at an exclusive premier of a new German propaganda film, 'The Nation Pride', attended by all the Nazi top official, and by Hitler himself. Of course, none of this is historically accurate. This is all wild fantasy that is strangely satisfying to watch, especially to the true film buffs.

I was having a hard time deciding whether to give 'Inglourius Basterds' a four star or a three-and-a-half. I finally decided on a three-and-a-half. I usually reserve my four star rating to films which I think, are flawless. 'Inglourius Basterds' is undeniably a very good Tarantino film, I only had some minor problem, particularly with the sequence involving Bridget the movie star, the basterds, and a bunch of Nazi at a pub, which I think is a little overlong and loses some momentum as a result. But there's so much in the film that I suspect I will like the film even more on a second viewing.

* In the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, 'Inglourius Basterds' was an official selection (in competition). It also won the Best Actor award for Christoph Waltz's performance as Col. Hans Landa

Papadom

2009-10-10T23:27:00.000-07:00

Rating: **1/2 (out of 4)
Cast: Afdlin Shauki, Liyana Jasmay, Noorkhiriah, Vanidah Imran, Farid Kamil
Director: Afdlin Shauki
Language: In Malay with English subtitle

A best film winner at the 22nd Malaysian Film Festival, Afdlin Shauki's 'Papadom' is a family oriented comedy-drama that tells the story of Saadom (Afdlin Shauki), a successful 'nasi kandar' business man in Penang who lost his wife (played by Noorkhiriah) in a traffic accident. Regretting that he had not spent enough time with his wife and daughter when his wife was still alive, Saadom vowed to take care of his daughter, Miasara (Liyana Jasmay) to the best of his ability. So protective is he that when Miasara is moving into a university for her undergraduate study, he is willing to leave his successful 'nasi kandar' business behind and goes undercover as a gardener in the university campus, so that he can watch over Miasara.

It is a problematic premise. Problematic, because it is just not that believable, and it felt cheesy. Well, may be such obsessively protective parents do exist, but it is still problematic if majority of the viewers find it to be bizarre. 'Do you see any other parents who follow his kids to a high school party?' Miasara asked Saadom.

Nevertheless, despite the problematic premise, the film is sustained largely due to Afdlin Shauki's comedic talent. There's no denying of his ability to induce laughter with his witty one-liner and hilarious situation. Yes, 'Papadom' is genuinely funny in its moments but felt somewhat incoherent as a whole, probably because at times it tends to drag on too long on its slapstick comedic moments, thus diluting its core story arc.

But Afdlin deserves his best actor award, he is able switch seamlessly from a comedian to a thoughtful father when the story requires it. Vanidah Imran has a supporting role as Professor Balqis, and hers is a delight to watch, we wish to see her longer in the film. Noorkhiriah, too is effective as Saadom's wife, sensitive and funny at the right moment. However, I am not too impressed with the teenage cast whose tendency to burst into theatrical over-acting borders on the edge of being annoying.

I suspect that the panel jury at the 22nd Malaysian Film Festival might have been won over by the film's climatic moment, which took place in a screening session of the student's film works. It is brilliant in a way, emotionally wrenching and suddenly we realize about the significance of the film's title, 'Papadom'. So, despite its problematic premise and uneven journey, there's no denying the redemptive power of a well-conceived climatic ending.

* 'Papadom' was a best film winner at the 22nd Malaysian Film Festival. It also won 4 other awards in the same festival for best actor, best actress, best original story and best musical score.

Sideways

2009-09-25T23:42:00.000-07:00

Rating: **** (out of 4)
Cast: Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh
Director: Alexander Payne
Year of release: 2004

Miles Raymond (Paul Giamatti) is a middle-aged man who is stuck in a stagnant job teaching English in high school. His true ambition, which is to become a writer, is going nowhere with his novel struggling to get published. His marriage too, failed 2 years ago. Everyday, after work, he comes back to a empty, lonely home. He has a habit of dining alone in quiet corners of restaurants.

Romantic life? Miles has more or less gave up on that prospect. With a balding hair, bulging tummy and fading youth, Miles runs low on confidence on how he looks and his own perceived career failure, and he thinks that no women will find him attractive for that. So dejected is he that when an attractive waitress Maya (Virginia Madsen) whom he had secretly taken a liking on asked him what is he doing for the night, he dully said to her 'You know, I am kind of tired by the day's traveling so I guess I will just go back to the Motel room to sleep'.

No, he's not a homo. But he sometimes gets so sicked of his best friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church)'s persistence on setting him up for dates that he will say 'Alright, alright, I am a homo. Give me a gay confession letter and I'll sign it. Just don't push me any further!'

Thank God, he has a way to light up his depressed life with his whole-hearted passion on wine. A passion like this may seems like a trivial hobby to others, but writer-director Alexander Payne knows that to someone like Miles, it is by no way just a hobby. It is in fact, a critical element that keeps him going with his life.

That shows incredibly sharp observation on human nature by the writer-director. That quality is also what makes 'Sideways' such a heartfelt, moving and wonderful film. It is road movie at its most inspiring. Payne understands that people like Miles is quite common among us. Hell, it can even be you or me. Majority of us, like it or not, lives an ordinary life. Many of us goes on with our monotonous life routine with ideals and dreams unfulfilled, and there comes a time when we start questioning the whole meaning of our lives and grow insecure over it. A classic case of mid life crisis and Payne (and his co-writer Jim Taylor) made a hero out of it, unconventional in every sense and devoid of any screen stereotype. Brilliant.

Mile's best friend Jack is getting married in a week's time. To celebrate Jack's last week of bachelor-hood, Miles treats him to a wine tasting road trip across California wine countryside. But Jack, a wine dummy, is not having it. He has his own plan of playboy adventure and dragged the reluctant Miles along in his adventure. So, the wine-tasting road trip turned sideways into something else, a delightful journey of life and tentatitve tender romance.

The romance between Miles and Maya (Virginia Madsen) is masterfully executed. Haunted by past marriage failures, they have both turned into passive mode in their respective romantic life. It was Jack who set them up and in their first gathering, there is this unavoidable awkwardness to start a topic. It helps that they both share a passion in wine and conveniently they launched into conversation sharing their passion on wines. The conversation gradually turned into something more personal and there comes the indecisiveness in Miles' part to 'make the move', and When he finally made it, they both turned unsure about what they are doing and calls it a day. All these are masterful sequence that we want to see it again and again to savor it, because it felt so personal. Alexander Payne understands how two lonely souls like Miles and Maya will progress on their relationship, and he filmed it in near perfection, not a false note, just all the right tone.

Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen all gave performances that when we view it, we can't think of any other actors who can substitute them to better effect.

'Sideways' could just turn up to be one of my all time favourite. It's the kind of film you want to see it again, even though you would have known its story and plot after the first viewing. You want to see it to savor the human experience, not to comprehend what happens in the plot. I have seen 2 films by Alexander Payne prior to this, 'Election' and 'About Schmidt'. They are both intelligent, great films. 'Sideways' topped them all, it is a wonderful, wonderful film.

Watch out for Alexander Payne for more great films.

* 'Sideways' was nominated for 5 Oscars in the 2005 Academy Awards, for best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay, best supporting actor and best supporting actress. It won the best adapted screenplay Oscar for Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor's excellent screenplay.

Vengeance (復仇)

2009-09-11T23:20:00.000-07:00

Rating: ***1/2 (out of 4)
Cast: Johnny Hallyday, Anthony Wong, Simon Yam
Director: Johnnie To
Language: In English and Cantonese with English Subtitle

A Cannes 2009's official selection, Johnnie To's Vengeance is a stylish revenge thriller. Stylish, because it is filmed in noir-ish style, with atmospheric, moody locations in Macau and Hong Kong. The visual, especially the night images in Macau, is breathtakingly beautiful. This is a quality rarely seen in mediocre HK productions. For that matter, 'Vengeance' is a French-HK co-production, a refreshingly crafted genre piece.

The film opens with a brutal massacre; a french woman with her Chinese husband and children were gunned down in their Macau home.

Johnny Hallyday, a french rock legend, played the woman's father, Costello. He came hurriedly to Macau, in time to listen to his dying daughter's last words. She begged to her father for revenge.

Johnny Hallyday's Costello is one of the more memorable leading man's performance I have seen this year. Charismatic and assuring, he brings to the screen the kind of seen-it-all, done-it-all world-weariness. Costello was in fact, a weathered professional hitman who last used a gun 20 years ago. In the presence of dangerous men, Costello showed cool calmness.

But, he is after all, a stranger in a foreign land. So, he hired a trio of professional hitmen, played by Anthony Wong, Lam Suet and Lam Ka-tung. The trio were initally vowed by the attractive compensation offered by Costello, but eventually developed a sympathy and bonding with Costello, and sets out on a dangerous adventure to help him in his vengeance.

What I like about this film, apart from its stylish visuals and memorable acting performances, is the poignancy amidst the blood-splattering violence. The hitmen in this film, despite their profession, are professionals who operate with a code of honour. They will get the job done, doing their best to spare innocent lives. When the trio (Anthony Wong, Lam Suet and Lam Ka-tung) were finishing of a unfaithful mistress of their employer, they unexpectedly bumped into a stranger (Costello) at the Hotel aisle. They hesitated on what to do, although they all knew that they should kill Costello, because Costello had seen their face.

Or consider the other trio of hitmen, when they were executing their job to finish off Costello's daughter and family. There were children hiding in the cupboard, and one of the hitman is about to open it. 'Don't open!' his leader said to him. If the cupboard's door is not opened, the children would not have seen the hitman's face and thus their innocent lives would have been spared.

Consider also when Costello with his 3 buddies came confronting the 3 hitmen who have killed his family. A BBQ party was taking place with wives and children present. Costello and gang sat patiently waiting for the party to end and the wives and children to leave the scene. 'They don't have to see this', one of them said.

* Johnnie To's 'Vengeance' is an official selection (in competition) for the 2009 Cannes Film Festival

Up

2009-08-30T22:21:00.000-07:00

Rating: ** (out of 4)
Director: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson

This year edition of the Cannes Film Festival made a history, it was the frst time the film festival opened with an animated feature in its opening night. Critical acclaim has been tremendously good since then for 'Up', with a near unanimous praise from critics. It scores 97% at the tomato meter.

Due to this, my expectation was sky high, I was expecting a rousing good time as I did with 'Ratatouille'.

Yet, I felt underwhelmed throughout the screening, and remained so after the end of the screening.

Something's wrong with me?

I admit that I had not had a extensive viewing experience of animated features. My adult cynicism sometimes prevent me from enjoying a pure children fantasy, thus I found Robert Zemeckis's 'The Polar Express' to be boring. Yet, I did thoroughly enjoyed 'The Lion King', 'Monster Inc', 'Shrek', and above all, 'Ratatouille', which I counted as one of the top films of the year.

In 'Up', there are undeniably brilliant moments. The silent montage narrating the life story of Carl and Ellie Fredriksen from their marriage till the old age is inspirational, by far the film's most memorable moment for me.

The rest of the film, sorry to say, it's too much of a children fable that I struggled to believe in. The moment when Carl lifted his house by helium balloons, just when he was about to surrender himself to social welfare officials, is supposed to be a big, triumphal moment. Yet, strangely, it came about so muted in terms of emotional pay-off. Surely, it could have been better told.

Characterization is not great. The chubby boy Russell is more annoying than lovable to me, his adoration towards the Kevin the bird is hardly convincing and this dragged the second half Indiana Jones-like action adventure to be workman-like. Speaking of which, I would also note that while I appreciated the filmmakers' meticulous details on old Carl's physical constraint at the beginning of the film, the filmmakers seems got carried away when staging the action adventure, making old Carl turning into an all-action Indiana Jones-like figure.

'Up' is a meditation on childlike state of innocence, of unrealized childhood dream. I am somewhat doubtful if it appeals to the adult viewers. 'Ratatouille', on the other hand, works on a higher realm with weighty commentary on what art means in real life, and it did it brilliantly all within a package both adult and children can enjoy.

Curious to find out if I am the odd one who is disappointed with 'Up', I went to rottentomatoes.com and did find 2 prominent critics, Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal, and Stephanie Zacharek of salon.com, who were disappointed with it.

Still, we are the minority. This review is just my honest, personal opinion.

District 9

2009-08-21T23:17:00.000-07:00

Rating: ***1/2 (out of 4)
Director: Neil Blomkamp
Cast: Sharlto Copely, Jason Cope, David James

After my thrashing of 'Transformers 2', I have been looking forward to a perfect counterpart to that, something that works within similar subject matter and aim to achieve the same goal, that is, to entertain, and yet did it with flying colours. Here it is, 'District 9' is one such movie.

A giant space ship hovered over Johannesburgh. Inside the space ship, close to a million of aliens were starving to death. Sympathetic South African decided to relocate the aliens to 'District 9', a slum-like location not unlike a refugee camp.

The aliens are called 'prawns' by the human, because that's what they resemble. The residents of Johannesburgh eventually grew wary of the aliens who live like gangsters, and they want them out. The goverment decides to relocate the aliens to District 10, a concerntration camp out of town. The dangerous relocation operation is outsourced to a private security firm called Multinational United (MNU).

Despite the intriguing sci-fi premise that evokes parallel to our treatment of human refugee and the racial segregation policy under apartheid, the movie is really more interested about being a standard fugitive action thrill ride. The relocation operation is handed by a dedicated and honest agent named Vikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copely). Considerting the hostility of the aliens towards the eviction order, the operation is hardly lucrative business to MNU. What draws MNU to the job, is the prospect of harnessing the secret of the biological based alien weaponary, which is not operatable by human, only the aliens are able to operate them.

Something went wrong during the operation, and Vikus is turning into a prawn, and find himself able to operate the alien weapons. Both MNU and Nigerian gangsters set out to hunt him down as a key asset to uncover the secret of the alien weapons. Vikus turned fugitive and took refugee in District 9, and foud an unlikely ally in a prawn named Christopher Johnson and his son.

'District 9' isn't exactly a philosophical science fiction. It has an intelligent sci-fi premise that serves as a parable for some social commentary, but ultimately it is a formulaic mad-operation-goes-wrong-and-good-guy-turns-fugitive type of standard piece, as in Michael Bay's 'The Island'. It is also meant to be an action-packed entertainment with special effect as the centre piece, as in 'Transformers 2', but what a huge difference in terms of quality. 'District 9' has an intelligent sci-fi premise, a documentary-like narrative style that lends realism to the film, a protagonist in Vikus whom we believe in and care for, an emotional core in Vikus's relationship with Christopher the alien and his son, and awesome special effects. It is quite a complete package, scoring in each of the departments. A special mention to the special effects, that's what special effects ought to be; visually fascinating and felt necessary in the context of the story, a striking contrast as compared to Transformers 2's excessive, noisy, incomprehensible, seonsors-numbing special effects.

The plot may be formulaic, and the material may be mostly standard genre piece. That's the kind of film producer Peter Jackson and director Neil Blomkamp want to make and have made to very good effect. The lightness in its substance is hardly a problem in view of the skillful execution. Throughly entertaining and a rare commercial gem.

Overheard (窃听风云)

2009-08-14T22:49:00.000-07:00

Rating: **1/2 (out of 4)
Cast: Lau Ching Wan, Louis Koo, Daniel Wu
Director: Alan Mak, Felix Chong
Language: Cantonese with English subtitle

From the screenwriting partnership that brought us 'Infernal Affairs' (无间道), 'Overheard' tells the story of an operation by the Hong Kong Police Force Commercial Crime Bureau to infiltrate internal communication of a listed corporation, Feng Hua International, whose directors were suspected of being involved in insider trading. The operation, led by a trio of seasoned policemen, Inspector Leung (Lau Ching Wan), Yeung (Louis Koo) and Lam (Daniel Wu) , installed cutting-edge interception devices within office premise of Feng Hua International to monitor its internal communication.

The terminally ill Yeung is short of money. When he and Lam came across an insider information during their monitoring routine, the temptation of making some quick bucks proves to strong to be resisted. The alert team lead, Leung, spot his subordinates' action and tried to stop them, but even his value of integrity wavered in the moment filled with temptation and dilemma.

They crossed the line, seemingly innocent at the beginning. However, each subsequent action to cover up their crime brought them deeper and deeper into trouble, until it is no longer possible to turn back and say 'I did it'. In Inspector Leung own words, 'If we want to cheat, cheat until the very end'.

The filmmakers, Alan Mak and Felix Chong, tried to tell the story with a heart. The private life of the main protagonists, particularly Leung and Yeung, is given substantial treatment, this is a film who cares about its characters.

All these are commendable. I, however, have a thing or two to say about some of the film's flaws.

Firstly, the love triangle involving Inspector Leung is distracting, and unnecessarily complicates the story. Secondly, the plot, fairly convincing in the beginning, starts to fall apart towards the 4th quarter of the film, descending into a series of implausible twist and turn of events, leading to a finale that is overly sensationalized, it felt contrived.

Why, isn't that the very same flaws that prevented Neil Jordan and Jodie Foster's 'The Brave One' to become a memorable film that it ought to be?

The story arc, where it all began as a fairly innocent criminal act which subsequently spiralled deeper and deeper with each subsequent act to conceal the criminal deed, has been told far more effectively in a couple of outstanding films I have watched, I recommend Sam Raimi's 'A Simple Plan' and Sidney Lumet's 'Before the Devil Knows You're Dead'.

Public Enemies

2009-07-31T22:52:00.000-07:00

Rating: *** (out of 4)
Cast: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard
Director: Michael Mann

John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) made a very interesting gangster. He robbed banks, lots of banks, and revealed his occupation straight to the girl he was trying to court on their first encounter. A criminal who doesn't lie? Interesting.

He is a man of principle, living by his code of ethics. He took the bankers money but turned away a frightened bank customer who handed him his money. 'I hate kidnapping, the public hate kidnapping'. A bank robber who cares about his public image? Interesting.

He is a man of his words, especially to his lady. He promised Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard) that he will take care of her, and kept his words, even if that meant he had to come right into a troop of federal agents led by Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) in order to get her away. A romantic gangster? Interesting.

All the above, are apparently based on facts, not sensationalized. Yes, Michael Mann's 'Public Enemies' is a faithful adaptation of the book 'Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34' by Bryab Burrough, which chronicles the 13 months between the day Dillinger escaped from the prison and the day he was shot dead, a period he mainly spent robbing banks. So faithful that Mann did not try to pretend that he knows what was driving Dillinger to his bank-robbing spree. The fact is, nobody knows, and probably nobody ever will.

Mann stubbornly stayed true to that, refusing to dramatize Dillinger's criminal life by providing an explanation on why he did that.

Being honest and sincere is often seen as a virtue in film making. But for once, it felt like a handicap in Mann's 'Public Enemies'. I tried to understand why; perhaps it is because an incredible feat like a 13-year bank robbing spree does need a subtext in order to be convincingly told.

In Mann's 'Collateral', a much better film, Mann too gave us something similar; a cold-blooded professional hit man played by Tom Cruise, who get the job done with no remorse. In that film too, little subtext was given to explain what's driving the hit man all along. However, the lack of subtext was hardly a problem in that film, because the film basically told what happened within that night, a much limited time scope as compare to a 13-year period, so we just ride along witnessing the event unfold on that night.

For once, I wish for the filmmaker to embrace the artistic liberty to dramatize actual fact in order to provide an emotional core to the film, even if that means hypothesizing a theory on what's driving Dillinger all along.

So, ironically, Mann's deliberate choice to stay faithful and honest has somewhat limit this otherwise technically impressive gangster flick. It lacks an emotional core.

Other than that, Mann's 'Public Enemies' is a great-looking period piece. Impressively shot by Mann, with awesome shoot-up scenes, and a stellar casts who gave fine acting performances, all set amidst a stunning art direction that brought depression era America back to life.

It may lack a heart, but visually and technically, it is worth the time and ticket price.

My Tribute to Yasmin Ahmad

2009-07-26T01:13:00.000-07:00

It is with deep sorrow that, when I was writing this, acclaimed Malaysian film director, Yasmin Ahmad, had left us forever. She suffered a stroke and passed away on 11.25 pm Saturday, 25th July 2009

Yasmin was one of the finest filmmakers Malaysia has ever produced. Her films include Rabun (2003), Sepet (2004), Gubra (2006), Mukhsin (2006), Muallaf (2008) and Talentime (2009). She won a couple of international awards for her films.

Yasmin's films are a delight to watch. She was arguably the first Malaysian filmmaker who is bold enough to paint a honest and sincere portrayal of the multi-racial Malaysian society, something which had been deemed too sensitive all this while.

She exhibited a sharp observation on humanity, the way human talk and interact. In her films, her characters will talk and interact just in a way they will talk in real life, a level of honesty and sincerity that is rarely seen in Malaysian films. She also injected a sense of humour that is heart warming to watch, and made her characters extremely likable and believable.

Her films are often exquisite portraits of love and sentimentality. Her films reminded us that true religious faith is about compassion and tolerance, rather than deviating religious faith to a level of hypocrisy, as certain quarters have done.

Her 'Gubra' is one of my all time favourite, one of the best film I have seen.

On May 2009, much to my surprise and honour, Yasmin joined this blog as a follower.

Losing her is painful.

Always cheerful and optimistic, Yasmin would not be happy to see us grieved over her departures. Yasmin loves films, let's move on and continue making, watching, supporting and discussing about films, we would be continuing and championing her passion in that way.

Kak Yasmin, your spirit will live on!

Transfomers: Revenge of the Fallen

2009-07-25T00:17:00.000-07:00

Rating: * (out of 4)
Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, John Turturro
Director: Michael Bay

With 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen', Michael Bay out-done his trademark excessiveness to a new level; excessive length (149 minutes), excessive number of robots, excessive battles, excessive noise, excessive explosion. It wouldn't be a problem if they are in the film for a reason, but unfortunately they don't. All the excessiveness only added confusion and made much of the film incomprehensible.

Incomprehensible, so many aspects of it.

The battles; with movement so frantic and chaotic that I did not get a visual sense of what's going on for much of the time. I didn't get a sense of who's fighting who, and what eventually killed the good robot, or the bad robot, or whoever.

The robots; so many of them, are bewildering. I never got to know who's the no. 1 bad robot. Aren't the bad robot all look the same? Oh yeah, I do know Optimus Prime, and Bumblebee, the good robots, and Prime provided the only thin emotional core that prevent me from falling asleep, when he was killed and then subsequently resurrected.

The human characters exists mainly so that someone will be there to run slow-mo from explosions, and to provide corny dialogue that is unintentionally funny, or intentionally funny moments that is more annoying than funny.

Prime: 'Any last words?' (Pointing a gun to bad robot's head)
Bad Robot: '......The fallen will rise!'
Soldier (in a awkwardly serious expression): 'Oh no, that doesn't sound good'
I burst out laughing. Sorry, I know it is not supposed to be funny, but I can't help it.

There will be people who say that I don't get it. 'It's all about sensory entertainment' They say.

No, that's not entertainment. That's sensory overkill, a torturing experience that numbed my sensor. Special effects will only be entertaining if they come with a context, or at the very least comprehensible. How can I be entertained when I can't even have a visual sense on what's happening on screen?

For the record, I did enjoy the 'Transformers I'. At the very least, it has a serviceable plot, a fresh 'ooh...ahh' sensory effect, and excessiveness (moderate by comparison) which does not add much to confusion. It is an example of a 'dumb, but fun' pop corn movie. 'Transfomers: Revenge of the Fallen' is dumber, not fun, and confusing.

Am I regret seeing this film? Yes...err no. Bad film like this does serve a purpose. It makes recent great film like 'Departures' looks all the more outstanding by comparison.

Forever Enthralled (梅兰芳)

2009-07-18T01:09:00.000-07:00

Rating: ***1/2 (out of 4)
Director: Chen Kaige
Cast: Leon Lai, Zhang Zhiyi
In Mandarin with English subtitle

Chen Kaige has not made a good film for a long time.

In 1993, his 'Farewell My Concubine' (霸王别姬) won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It is arguably one of the pinnacle achievement in Chinese cinema.

Since then, his films has been uneven, ranging from the middle road, odd, to simply awful. His 1996 'Temptress Moon' (风月) is visually beautiful, but saddled with baffling relationship between its characters. Year 2005's 'The Promise' (无极) is simply awful; a messy and laughable attempt at fantasy epic.

'Forever Enthralled' is a revisiting old material of sort, its subject matter, a biopic of Peking Opera performer Mei Lanfang,
is bound to beg comparison to the masterful 'Farewell My Concubine'. It is on this familiar ground that Chen Kaige rediscovered his form.

I see 'Forever Enthralled' as Chen's homage to artists who have given their life for the art, their sacrifice, their single-minded obsession, the risk they took for artistic innovation, their giving up of true love for career sake.

Indeed, fame comes with a price. 'Mei Lanfang does not belong to you, he does not belong to me either. He belongs to the audience' said Fu Zhifang, Mei's wife, to Meng Xiaodong (Zhang Zhiyi), Mei's lover.

Chen Kaige's homage to artistic sacrifice is told through the eyes of Mei Lanfang, his wife Fu Zhifang and Qiu Rubai, a high ranking government legal officer, who gives up his legal career to become Mei's manager, for the love of Mei's art. Qiu the manager will stop at nothing to protect Mei's artistic career, a symbol that represents obsession to the art.

The first act tells the story of the younger Mei, who launched a painful artistic duel with an old Peking Opera master he admired. Mei took bold risk to reinvent the art, and as a result defeated the old master in the duel to become the new king of the art.

Leon Lai plays the older Mei Lanfang in the next act. Now an established star, he met Meng Xiaodong (Zhang Zhiyi), a lover he eventually had to painfully leave behind for the sake of the art, as she is seen as a distraction to Mei's career. Their affair feels a tad forced and is probably a weaker link in the film.

As in 'Farewell My Concubine', this film crosses decades and plays at the backdrop of major historical events. While 'Farewell My Concubine' made a substantial historical statement with its climatic scenes set at the period of The Cultural Revolution, 'Forever Enthralled', lighter in its political tone, sets its final act during the days of the Japanese occupation of China, focusing on Mei's refusal to perform for the Japanese army.

'Forever Enthralled' is Chen Kaige's tribute to the sacrifice of artists, a fascinating and effective one at that.

* 'Forever Enthralled' is an official selection (in competition) for the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival.

Departures (Okuribito)

2009-07-10T22:58:00.000-07:00

Rating: **** (out of 4)
Director: Yojiro Takita
Cast: Masahiro Motoki, Ryoko Hirosue, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kimiko Yo
Language: In Japanese with English subtitle

What a beautiful film. Watching it, I smiled, I shed tears. Who would have thought that a story about a 'encoffineer', a type of professional who prepares deceased bodies before burial in a traditional Japanese funeral ritual, would be this emotionally involving? The film is sentimental, yet never melodramatic. Its bittersweet story is told in a subtle, sincere and down-to-earth way.

Daigo Kobayashi(Masahiro Motoki) was a aspiring classical musician playing cello in an orchestra in Tokyo. One day, out of a sudden, he found himself out of job as the orchestra was disbanded. Dejected, he decided to leave Tokyo to go back to his hometown. Thank God, he has his loyal, lovely wife Mika(Ryoko Hirosue), who cheerfully ride alongside with him, over this depressing ordeal.

Desperate for a job, Daigo came across a classified ad hiring for 'departures'. Thinking that it may be a travel agency, Daigo promptly turned up for interview at the company. The boss, Mr. Sasaki, wryly pointed out that the Ad is a misprint, it should read as 'The departed', and explained that the job deals with corpses. Before Daigo could reach for the door, Sasaki stuffed a generous sum of salary advance to Daigo. Daigo relented.

Despite a difficult beginning, Daigo grew steadily in his new career. He gradually saw the dignity of his new job, as the family of the deceased were grateful to his trade. However, his friends looked down at him, for doing a job nobody else want to do. Even his wife, Mika, disapproved of his strange job.

The director, Yojiro Takita, made a life affirming statement, ironically through a story dealing a lot with death. Death, as visualized in this film, is inevitable. Through the meticulously executed ritual of 'encoffinment', death looked dignified, as opposed to our common perception of horror and fear. If you are not dead, then you are living the life, with its ups and downs, with its unpredictability, and you should live it with dignity as well.

As a comparison, David Fincher's 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button', too, is a film dealing with the subject of life and death, but I found it gimmicky with its premise. 'Departures' is a sincere counterpart to that, and it is masterfully crafted, lending it with a mood and tone that is touching and engaging. Even when Takita risked sentimentality to extreme level, such as the scene having Daigo playing the cello in a lush paddy field countryside, it felt so appropriate.

Some may have criticized the predictability in its story. Indeed. With a story this plain, simple and predictable, it affects us emotionally, it moves us to tears, it brings out the smiles from our heart. Isn't that incredible?

* 'Departures' won the best foreign language film Oscar in the 2009 Academy Awards

Drag Me to Hell

2009-06-19T23:15:00.000-07:00

Rating: *** (out of 4)
Cast: Alison Lohman, Justin Long
Director: Sam Raimi

Sam Raimi's 'Drag Me to Hell' is an interesting entry to the horror genre. It has repeated loud shock that I'll often dismiss as cheap scare tactics in lesser horror films. It has special effects so over-the-top that it is physically impossible. It has relentless gore and splatter that is puke inducing, and it has a story so simple that it is essentially a B-grade material; read: Christine (Alison Lohman), a loan officer, has offended an old gypsy woman by denying her an extension to her home loan. In revenge, the gypsy woman places a curse on Christine that tranforms her life into a living hell.

Attributes as such would often be critisized as flaws in mediocre forror films. However, you know what? All these somehow works in 'Drag Me to Hell'.

Yes, I know I have an explanation to do, and I'll do that using an analogy. Let's say you go to a Chinese restaurant and order stir-fried beef. The beef dish, when it is served, must be fully cooked. Anything less than fully cooked, you are perfectly entitled to ask for a refund and curse the chef.

On the other hand, if you go to a western steakhouse and order steak done medium rare, you can't say that the beef dish is bad just because it is not fully cooked. Someone with a mature understanding of cuisine will understand that a Chinese stir-fried beef and a steak done medium rare are two different types of cuisine, and hence they should be judged differently. You can't use the same 'not fully cooked' argument to judge them.

Likewise, someone with a mature understanding of cinema would know that 'Drag Me to Hell' as compared to, say 'The Exorcist', are different type of horror films. 'The Exorcist', a classic in its own right, is the kind of horror that works on realism and mood. Unrealistic over-the-top visual effects and repeated loud shock would have spoilt it.

'Drag Me to Hell', on the other hand, is an exercise in irony. It is sometimes scary, yet funny at the same time. Scare and humour are like fire and water, totally opposite. Yet, Sam Raimi makes the two opposing elements works in the film. Watching it, I was genuinely scared in some of its moments. Even the repeated loud shock which I often find annoying in lesser horror films, genuinely jolted me from my seat for a few times. Yet, right after I recover from the shock, I realized the absurdity of it all and started laughing. My fellow audience must have felt the same as their emotional reaction sensed by my ear takes the form of scream, followed by yikes (disgust), and finally followed by giggles.

'Drag Me to Hell' isn't that kind of horror that takes itself too seriously, it is meant to be a campy thrill ride. So, complaining that its visual effect is unrealistic or its gore and repeated loud shock is 'cheap' will be akin to complaining that your medium rare steak is not fully cooked.

Sam Raimi and Alison Lohman gave us a main protoganist, Christine, we can believe and relate to. It isn't a soulless cardboard character like in so many of the lesser horror films. We like her and we care for her. In the beginning, Christine wemt against her own conscience in making a tough decision to deny a loan extension to a helpless old woman, driven by her desperation to impress her boss in order to gain a promotion. In the end, Christine was in a moral dillema when she was told that she could easily pass on her suffering to another person by giving the cursed button away as a gift to that person. To whom she should give it to? Was it the right thing to do? How humane, how nicely done, and how we can't help but to connect to her emotionally, however B-grade or simple her story may be.

Sam, good to see you back at your 'The Evil Dead' roots.

Solaris

2009-06-05T23:41:00.000-07:00

Rating: ***1/2 (out of 4)
Cast: George Clooney, Natascha McElhone, Jeremy Davies
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Year of release: 2002

Something has gone terribly wrong to a space mission to planet Solaris. The crew of 4 has cut off communication with Earth, and although the space station is equipped with advanced AI that will send them back to Earth automatically, they refused to come back.

Back on Earth, psychologist Chris Kelvin (George Clooney) received a SOS call from Gibarian, the crew's commander, who is also Chris' close friend. In his video message to Chris, Gibarian pleaded to Chris to come to planet Solaris, saying that Chris is the best candidate to be able to help them. What has happened? the commander wouldn't say, except that it is totally bizarre, and Chris will know for himself upon arriving there.

As Chris arrived at the space station orbiting planet Solaris, he's shocked to find that Gibarian, the commander has committed suicide, along with another crew. The 2 surviving crew, Snow (Jeremy Davies) and Dr Gordon (Viola Davis) exhibits severe distress, as if something has scared the hell out of them.

What has happened? Still, Chris got no meaningful answers from the 2 surviving crew, but he is about to find out for himself on his first night on the space station, when he fall asleep. He dreamed of his dead wife, how they first met, and the tender moments they shared together. Chris awoke from his dream when a familiar soft hand stroked his face gently, and to his great bewilderment, there she is, Rheya (Natascha McElhone), his dead wife, lying besides him.

Apparently, all the crews, and now Chris, has had strange 'visitor' like this, someone dearest to them, someone they missed. There seems to be a strange force from planet Solaris, that resurrects or create a copy of that 'someone'. But there's a catch: in Rheya's (or her copy) own words, she has memories, but she doesn't remember experiencing these things.

The 'copy' is a physical flesh-and-blood manifestation of of what the other person know about them, in Chris case, the Rheya copy is the materialization of his perception of his dead wife. We came to know that in real life, Chris's relationship with Rheya ended tragically with Rheya committed suicide. And here it is, the Rheya's copy is just as suicidal, because in Chris mind, his dead wife is suicidal.

But the real Rheya in real life may not be suicidal, the copy behaved that way precisely because that's Chris' perception on Rheya.

Steven Soderbergh's 'Solaris' has the kind of intelligent science fiction premise that does not have to resort to portraying extra-terrestrial being as ugly monsters. Having said that, the sci-fi element is just a premise, though an intriguing and essential one. Soderbergh is more interested about human psychology, that makes his version of 'Solaris' a psychological drama set in a intriguing sci-fi premise.

It delves into the very nature of human emotion, how we can fall in love to not only the real someone, but also to our idea, perception of someone. We fall in love to characters in novels, films. We can also be emotionally connected to some famous great people that we do not know personally, apart from what we do know about them based on information from news and writing. In our rational mind, We know that the film and novel characters are not real, but emotionally we develop love and adoration towards them. In our rational mind, we are aware that the 'real' famous great people may not be what we perceive them to be, but that doesn't stop us from connecting to them emotionally.

In 'Solaris', Chris knows that Rheya in the space station is not real, but emotionally he can't help but to accept her, seeing that as his chance for a redemption, an atonement to his deep guilt and regret, for what he has done to the real her in real life. Is it real or fake? Are we alive or dead? It doesn't matter anymore, as long as our mind believes it to be real.

In the closing moment of the film:
Chris: 'Am I alive, or dead?'
Rheya: 'We don't have to think like that anymore'

Based on a Stanislaw Lem's novel, it was first filmed by Russian master filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972. I haven't seen the Tarkovsky's version, it is said to be a sci-fi classic. Now Soderbergh has remade it in his own version, into a film that challenges his viewers, a films that lingers on your mind for days after you have watched it. It is paced slowly, a wise decision that offers its viewers with rooms and spaces to ponder upon the profound idea in the film. Its tone is quiet, again a wise decision as it fits the introspective nature of the film. It is ambiguous, perhaps a tad overly so, many will find the urge to see it again for a second time after the first viewing.

Slow, quiet, ambiguous, not a recipe that will sell a lot of tickets. But Soderbergh's 'Solaris' is after all, a niche offering that appeals to the more intellectually inclined viewers. Steven Soderbergh is a very talented filmmaker whoose projects alternates between the more mainstream ('Erin Brokovich', the 'Ocean Eleven' franchise) and the more obscure and challenging ('Traffic', 'Solaris', 'Sex, lies, and videotape', 'Out of Sight'). I highly appreciate a film like 'Solaris' where he is in a mood for challenges, and refused to succumb to commercial demand.

* Note: Steven Soderbergh's Solaris was a official selection (in competition) for the 2003 Berlin International Film Festival

Angels and Demons

2009-05-30T01:21:00.000-07:00

Rating: *** (out of 4)
Director: Ron Howard

'Angels and Demons' is the kind of fast-paced thriller with a plot loaded with twist and turns, that if you care to think about the plot more deeply after the film ends, you are bound to realize about its implausibility and discover plot holes.

But while you are watching it, it's unlikely that you will notice it and you will in fact be, glued to your seat and enjoy the ride.

There's no time to think, a time bomb is ticking, and we need to save the world...ooops, the Vatican.

The Catholic Church has just lost a respected and beloved Pope. In the interim period while the Cardinals are electing the next Pope, an ancient secret organization, the Illuminati resurfaced, with a vengeance.

The Illuminati was once a church faction who was pro-science. The church leadership at that time, did not like that, probably see them as a political threat and so persecuted them, and drove them underground.

The Illuminati has now resurfaced for revenge, and their game plan is over-the-top: kidnap the 4 favourite candidates to succeed the Pope, threaten to execute them one-by-one by 8,9,10 and 11pm, and finally blow off the Vatican with a time bomb by 12 mid night.

So, how do the Vatican cope with that? Reluctantly, they turned to someone they don't really like, Professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), renowned symbollogist of Harvard University.

Poor Professor Langdon was dragged into a cat-and-mouse chase again as a innocent third party, this time racing against time to prevent 4 separate murders at 8,9,10,11 pm respectively, at 4 separate locations, and a time bomb to be defused at 12 mid night. Well, at least he had a companion of the beautiful Vitorria (Ayelet Zurer), the Italian scientist whose research material was stolen to be used as the time bomb.

While we are thrown into frantic chase, we sense that something fishy is going on in the Vatican church. Conspiracy? Insider Jobs? Sorry, I can't reveal any further about the plot or else I will be shot at for giving away spoilers.

The whole production is competently executed, something we have come to expect from a partnership of director Ron Howard and Tom Hanks. Fast-paced, taut, intriguing, occasional funny moments, and I actually appreciate the action sequence and explosion in the film, the very things which I have said some not-so-pleasant things about in my review on 'X-men Origins' and 'Star Trek'. Here, the explosion and action sequence felt necessary in the context of the plot.

The pace is simply so fast that you can't help but to simply ride along with the adventure, with no time to notice some of the film's flaws, like Professor Langdon's lack of personality and the plot holes.

Really, it is a more than descent piece of entertainment, and all is forgiven (How much do we know about Professor Langdon as a person after seeing the film? Never mind that)

Star Trek

2009-05-23T01:01:00.000-07:00

Rating: ** (out of 4)
Director: J.J. Abrams

The annual Hollywood summer releases are not something I particularly looking forward to. Well, I was during my teenage days, but after years of film-viewing, I have grown weary of that. The summer blockbusters often look like they all came from an assembly lines, like a product made from a formulaic template, with lots of compulsory loud and explosive action and special effects.

And Hollywood's lack of idea must have reached an impoverished state when you see sequels and prequels dominated the scene.

I have nothing against commercial movies. They can be skillfully made through sheer craftsmanship. 2008's 'Iron Man' is a good example, it is formulaic but it is fun, we love and care about the characters and it's a great entertainment. 2009's 'The Dark Knight' is on another class of its own, it is a revolutionary entry to its genre.

But those are rather rare occurrence.

2009's summer season began with 'X-men Origins: Wolverine', and I called it 'mediocre at best'. The second blockbuster release of the season is yet(!) another back-to-origin attempt to revive a tired franchise.

I am not a trekkies and have hardly watched any Star Trek movies or TV series before. This material, is more space opera than science fiction. True science fiction films are thought provoking and philosophical, and the science in the films is treated intellectually, at least at a pseudo-science level. Examples of true science fiction films are Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey', Andrei Tarkovsky's 'Solaris' (as well as Steven Soderbergh's remade version), and Danny Boyle's 'Sunshine'.

Materials like Star Wars are no Sci-fi, they are space opera, there is hardly any science in it, they are essentially action movies set in a space background. This is not to say that one is more superior than the other, they are just 2 different types of movies, and they serve different purposes.

I thought the old Star Trek is part sci-fi, and part space opera. But never mind that, I don't know for sure. But I am pretty sure that the new 'Star Trek' is pure space opera.

If 'X-men Origins: Wolverine' was soulless, devoid of humanity, 'Star Trek' actually had potential to score in that area. The initial rivalry between Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto), the former represents instinct, the latter represents rational reasoning, that eventually develops into a formidable partnership, is a potentially fascinating story arc.

Fire vs water, positive vs negative, ying vs yang, and they eventually harmonized into great effect. Hmm...that would have been interesting.

But alas, like so many of the summer blockbusters, director J.J. Abrams is more interested in showcasing loud explosion and expensive special effects. The personality of Kirk and Spock and the development of their relationship was only given a rather superficial treatment, giving way to the 'quota': loud explosion, space ships firing at each other, combat.

Really, what is supposed to be interesting was watered down by all those 'seen it all' action and special effects.

I wish for the film to explore the personality of Kirk and Spock more substantially, perhaps by putting them into situation that challenge the very quality that they represent for: instinct and rational reasoning, and how their eventual partnership complement each other's strength and weakness and thus overcome the challenges.

Anyway, I have to remind myself that this is space opera, after all. So, action rules.

* Note: 'Star Trek' scored an astonishingly good 95% in rottentomatoes.com. The tomato meter is my favourite tool to gauge how good a film is. It is usually reliable. This time though, personally I find it baffling to see such a high score.

Tarantino's 'Inglourious Basterds' opened at Cannes 2009 to mixed reviews

2009-05-22T02:50:00.000-07:00

Quentin Tarantino's highly anticipated World War II drama, 'Inglourious Basterds' had its premier in Cannes 2009 just days ago, in what was arguably the most eagerly-awaited event of the festival.
Early reviews had been mixed. It is 148 minutes long and had been described as 'talky', 'mischievous', 'deliberately incoherent'(!?), 'playful', 'distinctive piece of American pop art', 'flirts between comedy and violence'.

It seems like Tarantino has continued his trademark outragesly inventive film making in this latest entry.

Will it be released in Malaysia? I am not overly optimistic on that prospect, given the state of our censorship board who barely understands Tarantino's works. (Kill Bill Vol 1 was banned in Malaysia back in 2003)

Sell Out!

2009-05-15T23:03:00.000-07:00

Director: Yeo Joon Han
Rating: ** (out of 4)

'Sell Out!' is director Yeo Joon Han's attempt at making a satire cum musical combo. It was made with a noble intention and ambition, and in seeing this film, you can sense that the film makers have put a lot of brain into it. The end result, however, does not quite works.

The main problem with the film is the lack of a focus, a central theme. SB Toh of 'The Star', in his review of this film, was spot on when he says that '......but there is a difference between having something to say and wanting to say something about everything'.

A good, effective statire needs a focus. Ben Stiller's 'Tropic Thunder' poked fun at the Holywood film industry. Alexander Payne's intelligent 'Election' presents a sharp satirical insight into the political system, through a fictional high school election.

For the record, 'Sell Out!' does have a theme, it touches on the issue of idealism vs pragmatism. Nevertheless, instead of focusing and developing on the theme, the film too often exhibits a tendancy to deviate from its focus to say 'something about everything'. It pokes fun at the self-indulgant Malaysian indie films, the monopolistic state of the media industry (I supposed he's referring to the Malaysian media industry), the general public impression on the state of our public service, the reality shows, our obsession with English-accented Eurasians TV host......

Yes, that's a lot, and it dilutes its focus and intellectual coherence.

The 2 main protagonists (Rafflesia Pong and Eric Tan), too, failed to establish an emotional connection with the viewers, further dampening the effectiveness of the film as a satire.

So much for the film's short comings. Let's move on to the film's positive strength. 'Sell Out!' is undeniably brilliant in some moments. It is funny at times and surprisingly effective in some of its song-and-dance sequence. My favourite is the poignant singing of dying Tony, Rafflesia Pong's fiance, on his sick bed, the scene is sentimental yet funny, an odd yet effective combination.

The rest of the movie, too, exhibits a fun and energetic tone, a welcoming release from the 'nothing ever happen' stigma of the many Malaysian indie films (James Lee's works?), which Yeo poked fun at in the beginning of 'Sell Out!'

And KL has never looks better in Yeo's celluloid images.

As a debut feature film, Yeo's ambition deserves compliments. The film is interesting, though not very effective. I will be looking forward to Yeo's next feature film project.

*Note: 'Sell Out!' won the Alternative Vision Award at the 2008 Venice Film Festival

X-men Origins: Wolverine

2009-05-15T22:47:00.000-07:00

Director: Gavin Hood
Rating: ** (out of 4)

Yet another Hollywood's attempt to revive a tired franchise by revisiting the origins. Some scored with flying colours; take Christopher Nolan's 'Batman Begins' and Martin Campbell's 'Casino Royale'. Some failed: take 'Hannibal Rising', 'Exorcist: The Beginning'.

How is this latest return-to-origin version to the X-men franchise? Sorry to say, it's a pretty soulless superhero flick.

In my most recent review prior to this, I praised Derek Yee's 'Shinjuku Incident' as a movie with heart, which cares about its characters. 'X-men Origins' provides a contrast to that. Like many of the lesser superhero flicks, it cares more about the super power than the character's human story. What exactly is driving Victor Creed, Wolverine's half brother, in behaving like a reckless animal during the war? No idea. Why did Wolverine and Victor fought in wars after wars? No idea. How do the 2 brothers feel about each other? No idea either.

In fact, just when the film is about to develop some much needed tender human moment, the moment when Wolverine lives with a kind, old couple, the film just blew them away.

Too bad.

Such flaws has been plaguing a lot of lesser superhero flicks. The better ones, like Christopher Nolan's 'Batman Begins' and 'The Dark Knight', and Sam Raimi's Spiderman Series, wisely focus more on the character's human story: their struggle, their life choices , their moral dillema. The lesser ones, like 'Fantastic Four' and 'X-men Origins', are more interested about showcasing superpower.

Much of the story is hardly believable. The romance between Wolverine and Kayla is thinly sketched to the extend that when she was killed, I hardly cared. The rage that ensued, to the extend that Wolverine is willing to be transformed into a monster by some crazy experiment in order to seek revenge, is hardly convincing as a result.

The only saving grace to this movie is the plot. The plot, at least gives us a reason to keep watching. Still, that proves to be too little too late, unable to save it from mediocrity.

All the more disappointing is the fact that this movie is directed by Gavin Hood, whose terrific 'Rendition' was on my top 10 list for 2008. I hope that he goes back to making good serious drama, and spend less time making soulless blockbusters like this.

I have nothing against the X-men Series. In fact, I find the first 3 in the series as descent movies worthy of a 3 star rating. At the very least, the characters have personality, making them fun to watch. This latest entry is soulless, and mediocre at best.

Shinjuku Incident (新宿事件)

2009-05-02T23:56:00.000-07:00

Rating: ***1/2 (out of 4)
Director: Derek Yee

It must have been hard being a illegal immigrant. He not only has to scramble for hard labour work that pays little, he also has to be constantly on alert from being hauled up by enforcement officer for working without a permit. To make matter worse, gangsters may find you a good bullying target.

'Shinjuku Incident' tells the story of Tie Tou (Jacky Chan) who is a Chinese illegal immigrant in Tokyo. His real purpose of being in Tokyo is to look for his hometown lover who has earlier came to Japan but has since never returned. He started off making a living doing menial job, but soon find the temptation of the lucrative dirty business too hard to resist.

You see, Kabukicho in Shinjuku is not a very nice place to operate unethical business operation, especially when the mobters operating there see you as competitor. So, inevitably, Tie Tou was dragged into the circle of Japanese Yakuza.

Having striked a deal with a divisional chief of a mob faction, Tie Tou was given a territory to operate on, for having successfully performed a hitman job. Being a descent man, he decides to legalized his business empire, but sadly, his brothers may not buy the idea.

Like Ridley Scott's 'American Gangster', Derek Yee's film offers a insightful look into the mechanism of how a mob empire works. All is often not well among the different mob factions, and loyalty and rivalry shifts fickly. More importantly, mobsters also operates as capitalist entity, and they may be more business-savvy than you expect them to be.

Jacky Chan's performance in this movie is a rejuvenating transformation for his career. Gone were the trademark 'monkey fight' that we have grew weary of. His 'tie tou' character is a role of depth, and he did not disappoint, although in a few scenes, he did border on over-acting.

A movie like 'Shinjuku Incident' is a movie with heart, it cares about its character. It is interested in the story of Tie Tou's life; how he got into it, how he tried to start anew, and how frustratling it is to see his brothers refusing to follow him to 'clean' uph. A lesser mob movie would have merely used its characters as soulless puppet in staging gangster blood bath. Not in 'Shinjuku Incident'. Seeing it, we realize that some mobsters are not that different from you and I. They are victim of circumstances, who got into the dark path by chance. They, too, are doing it for a living, just like the rest of us.

It reminds me of a sentence from Mario Puzo's mafia novel, 'The Godfather', that a mafia is just a slightly unethical businessman.

Knowing

2009-04-04T00:58:00.000-07:00

Rating: *** (out of 4)

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne
Director: Alex Proyas

Did our world happen by coincidence or by a well-laid plan? This is the debate of determinism vs randomness. In determinism, it is believed that the universe come into being as a creation by a ultra being. As such, things that happened are all part of the plan, and hence a prophecy does exist.

In randomness, it is believed that the universe come about solely as a coincidence, and hence we have things like the big bang theory. Everything that happened is just a coincidence, and hence there is no plan involved and no such thing as a prophecy.

The human society is probably split between the two schools of thought. What is my side on this debate? I don't know for sure. The answer to this will probably remain out-of-reach to me for a long time.

It is good to see a movie like 'Knowing' that is made with this philosophical debate as its core. The movie is told from the eye of John Koestler (Nicolas Cage), a MIT astrophysics professor who is a firm believer in randomness, until he stumbles upon a message from 50 years ago in the form of a numerical pattern, that accurately predict the major disasters that had happened in the past 50 years. The discovery challenges Koestler's belief to its depth, and as viewers, so do ours.

'Knowing' is a sci fi thriller of the philosophical sort. It is thought-provoking, intriguing and at times creepy. It is not perfect; the character acts implausibly at times, and so is the plot. Nevertheless, it is a lot better than many of the hollow special effect extravaganza that is simply forgettable. This one keeps you thinking right after you leave the cinema hall.

The direction, by Alex Proyas, isn't as convincing as his 'Dark City', which masterfully blends sci fi in a noir-ish metropolis. Still, the premise of 'Knowing' is no less intriguing. I just have a feeling that it would have been better if Alex Proyas has made it in a more low-key mode as in 'Dark City'.

Talentime

2009-04-04T00:31:00.000-07:00

Rating: *** (out of 4)
Director: Yasmin Ahmad

They say that some filmmakers have only 1 story to tell. Well, I hate to say this, this is the feeling I got after watching Yasmin Ahmad's latest feature film, 'Talentime'. It felt like Anthony Minghella revisiting his theme of war time drama in 'Cold Mountain', years after making the Oscar-winning 'The English Patient'.

'Talentime', like 'Sepet', again deals with interracial relationship. The feeling of deja vu is re-inforced by Harith Iskandar 'reprising' his role as 'Ah bah' of the girl's family. Again, the girl came from a liberal-minded family. Again, the family has a maid who is more like a part of the family. Adibah Noor features again, although in a different role.

With ‘Telentime’, Yasmin seems to be filling in the gap left over in ‘Sepet’. If 'Sepet' is said to be under-representing Indian characters, this time she make amends by having an interracial relationship between an Indian boy and a Malay girl. Yasmin filling in the 'muhibah' quota? Seems so.

Another criticism of 'Sepet' is that it over-simplifies matter by having 2 liberal-minded families in its story (Ironically, this is also partly the reason why 'Sepet' works so well). Here, Yasmin counters to that by having a rather 'racist' mother for the Indian boy. A darker version of 'Sepet'? Seems so.

All the above is meant more as an observation, less as a criticism. Yes, 'Talentime' is rehashing old material. But such material remains highly controversial that it deserves a retelling, with a fresh perspective. I remain a fan of Yasmin's work; 'Talentime' gracefully took a swipe against those who are 'racist' in the Malaysian Society, the re-conciliation between Hafiz and the top scorer Ka Hoe in a musical performance on stage is beautifully done, so is the scene when Mahesh's mother comes to relization that her dead nephew has deep regret over his failed relationship with a Indian-Muslim girl, due to Mahesh's mother objection. The story is told with down-to-earth sincerity as in the Taiwanese ‘Cape No. 7’. So, it is not that commercial.

And yes, the town of Ipoh remains so beautiful in Yasmin's celluloid images.

Is it better than 'Sepet'? Probably not. The characters in 'Talentime' is not as engaging as in 'Sepet'. What Yasmin is doing is probably to give the material a more weighty interpretation. She deserves credit for that.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

2009-02-19T21:30:00.001-08:00

Rating (out of 4): **1/2

As I was watching ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’, I felt a resemblance to ‘Forrest Gump’. No wonder, the same writer, Eric Roth, penned the screenplays for both movies. Both movies feature a less-than-normal human being, and follow their life story in a cross decades and continent way. Both films also feature a love interest that intersects with the life of the main protagonist in an on and off manner.

No, ‘Benjamin’ isn’t in the class of ‘Forrest Gump’, and I’ll tell you why. ‘Forrest Gump’ is aided by a magnificent performance by Tom Hanks, which will stand the test of time and be remembered as one of the most unforgettable performance in film history. Secondly, ‘Forrest Gump’ is a meditation on modern American history, chronicling major events in recent American history, as seem through the eye of a naïve, good-hearted Gump. As a film, ‘Benjamin’ lacks qualities of such intellectual focus as well as a pivotal acting achievement.

In fact, the 1st half of the movie is somewhat sluggish. We see Benjamin Button born as a baby with wrinkles and cataract, and age backwards. His childhood was spent in an old-age home, listening to life stories of old people in their twilight years. Death, is a common sight for him from small. He then met Daisy, the love of his life. As he grew up, he embarked on a cross-continental sea voyage in a tug boat, and stumble upon war battle.

Up until this point, the film is way too episodic, lacking a good flow. It is a common trap for movies chronicling life events to fall into, particularly biopic. Some, like Martin Scorsese’s splendid ‘The Aviator’, managed to provide a much-needed story arc to allow the life events sail through in a nice flow.

The movie starts to pick up when Ben and Daisy, who age in opposite direction, intersects in their 20’s and 30’s. This is when a story arc starts to surface, putting them into difficult life choices and moral dilemma. Ben was hesitating to raise his daughter, as he thinks the daughter need a real father who age with her, and that Ben will be more like a playmate to her, and Daisy can’t possibly be raising both of them. This is what we find interesting, fitting a ‘curious case’ as Benjamin’s.

The film was directed by David Fincher, who has previously worked predominantly in the realm of thrillers. His ‘Se7en’, ‘Fight Club’, ‘The Game’, ‘Panic Room’ and ‘Zodiac’, offers some of the most well-made thrillers in modern time. A material like ‘Benjamin’ is a somewhat unfamiliar territory for Fincher, and it felt so.

No doubt, on a production level, ‘Benjamin’ is impressive in many aspects, and it may very well picks up Oscars for makeup, visual effects, art direction and other technical categories. It is also well-acted as a whole. It is an ambitious film, exploring heavy subject matters such as life, death, aging and mortality. But the film seems overwhelmed by its own ambition, and I am not sure if the ‘curious case’ premise really helps to tell such philosophical elements better. It feels more like a gimmick to pull the audience in.

Red Cliff (Pt 1 & 2) 赤壁

2009-02-01T20:09:00.000-08:00

Rating (out of 4) : ***

I am thankful that John Woo has made Red Cliff (Pt 1 & 2) without overly focusing on the grand battle scene. The original material which the films were based upon, 'The Romance of the Three Kingdom', is a work with considerable depth, and John Woo's films lend justice to that.

Yes, 'Red Cliff' has loads of grand battles, some a bit overlong. But the films are also as much about the mechanics of warfare too; the planning, the strategy, the war tactics, great minds outsmarting each other, the organizational structure within a war faction. These, are in fact, elements that I find more interesting.

The mechanics in which the war factions organize themselves was elaborately presented by John Woo, so much so that it can be seen as a parable to the way humanity organize themselves. At the very top, you have warlords like Liu Bei and Sun Quan. In the business world, they will be the business owners, the ones with the vision. They assembled a team of able and trusted lieutenants to work with him in achieving his vision. At the foreground, the warlord (business owner) may not be doing much. The actual running of the army is left to a commander-in-chief like Zhou Yu, much like the CEO is the one who run the business. Nevertheless, the warlord is the ultimate leader, who first came out with the vision and build an organization from scratch to achieve it. They, the successful ones, often live by a certain principle and thus command respect and loyalty from his top lieutenants. In the film, Liu Bei stood firm by his principle to protect his citizen, even if that means he will have to concede defeat to his enemy due to that.

The commander-in-chief (CEO) run the business, they get the job done for the warlord (business owner), but they are often professionals who may switch sides by working for another warlord (business owner). Still, as the film shows, a successful war campaign (business) needs a loyal partnership between the warlord and his commander-in-chief, that's where the warlord (business owner) needs to be trusworthy and charismatic to make his top lieutenants believe in his vision.

Under the commander-in-chief, there are the other top generals like Zhao Zilong, Guan Yunzhang, Zhang Fei and Zhu Geliang, not unlike the COO, CFO, CTO, Regional Chiefs who formed the top management team of a business organization. The chain of command goes right down to a bomb maker who make bombs out of fish oil. He is like a project manager, no?

Hell, even top generals had to deal with tight deadlines, and the punishment for not meeting the deadlines? Death by beheading. I would have been dead many times have I lived in those time.

Of course, you also have variation in roles like Chao Cao, who's more like an owner/CEO. Zhu Geliang is not quite a CEO but a chief strategist, a master mind.

Cool huh?

Red Cliff is the kind of movie that sort of making the war looks pretty cool. In fact, the one attempt by John Woo to balance things up (to make it look ugly) by having an unnecessary romantic subplot involving Sun Shangxiang and a young rival army turn out to be rather, unnecessary.

If only John Woo has gone even deeper by exploring the personal conflict, the inner struggle of some of the major characters like Liu Bei, Sun Quan, Zhou Yu and Zhu Geliang, the moral dilemma of these people in fighting the war, Red Cliff would have been quite a package. Yes, yes, I know I am being fussy here. Still, Red Cliff deserves praise as a work that lend justice to its original materials. The production is impressive, the war game intriguing and the ensemble cast gave an imposing collective performance.

* Note: I choose to review 'Red Cliff (Pt 1 & 2)' as a single unit of work as I don't see any artistic reason of breaking it into 2 films. This is unlike Quentin Tarantino's 'Kill Bill Vol 1' and 'Kill Bill Vol 2', which posses qualities that justify them to be seen as 2 individual films. The decision to break 'Red Cliff' into 2 films must have been purely a commercial one.
Also, part of the reason is I happened to watch both the 'Red Cliff' films in a single day 4-hour-plus movie marathon, thanks to GSC who re-run part 1 which I have missed last year.

Best Movies of 2008

2008-12-24T00:15:00.000-08:00

The Year's Top 10 Best

1. There Will Be Blood
Paul Thomas Anderson's epic tale about an obsessive oil tycoon who is willing to exploit everything, including his own adopted child, all for the single purpose of oil wealth, made the biggest impression on me.
The movie's subject matter is inherently dark; all the dark side of humanity is deeply casted here: greed, corruption, and above all, hatred.
Daniel Day-Lewis gave a tour-de-force perfomance as Daniel Plainview, the obsessive tycoon who, in his own words, 'hate all men'. When he speaks, his voice sounds greasy with oil. Day-Lewis's character carried much of the dark theme of the movie, but what I found even more disturbing is the hypocrite priest Eli Sunday (Paul Dano). Nothing is more hideous than a hypocrite wearing a religious mask. Seeing that, we somehow emphatise with Plainview's hatred towards men.
The movie plays like a nightmarish tale of the American dream. As in Scorsese's 'The Aviator', the unrelenting obsession eventually spiralled down to madness. Some viewers may hate the ending, it is pure madness. It is however, oddly appropriate given its subject matter.

2. Before The Devil Knows You're Dead
A sharp, edgy crime thriller, skillfully helmed by the great Sidney Lumet, who now in his 80's is still crafting great movies.
It tells the story of 2 brothers who's plotting a crime against their own parents. Unspeakable crime it may be, Lumet told it with such skills that the crime seems relatively innocent enough to the 2 brothers at the beginning. The execution by the brothers went terribly wrong, Thereafter the brothers tried to salvage the damage done, however each decision and action take them deeper and deeper into crisis, it eventually all end up in a family tragedy.
The film is intensely acted by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke who played the brothers, and Albert Finney as the father whoose hurt is unberable. It is the kind of movie which strongly reminds the viewers that crime never pays, and it does so in a classy, subtle way without the single hint of being preachy.

3. The Dark Knight
With this film, Christopher Nolan has defies the normal scope of the superhero genre to a whole new level never seen before. Superhero movies is no longer confined to the boundary of light popcorn blockbuster made for teenagers. 'The Dark Knight' changed that. It is an epic crime drama with a villain so relentless that the whole Gotham City is surrounded in gloom.
It is rare for a superhero movie to incorporate thought-provoking philosophical subtance amidst the action-packed adventure. 'The Dark Knight' did just that. It put Bruce Wayne into moral dillema so deep, that we sympathesized with him. It posed hard question on what really defines a hero, the way Zhang Yimou's martial art masterpiece 'Hero' (英雄) does.
Within the superhero genre, perhaps only 'V for Vendetta' came to that level of sophistication before. 'The Dark Knight' has more to it, the technical production is top notch, and the late Heath Ledger as Joker, what an awesome performance.

4. Eastern Promises
David Cronenberg's gangster drama is not made on an epic scale, the way Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather Trilogy and Sergio Leone's 'Once Upon a Time in America' were. It clocks at only 96 minutes, and by that I don't mean it as a criticism.
The story is told through an event encountered by Anna Khitrova (Naomi Watts), a midwife who decides to protect the surviving infants whose mother died in delivery. The dead mother's diary lead Anna to a mysterious Russian mafia family in London.
Unlike the other epic gangster drama who tells the life story of mob families, Cronenberg's work plays more like a thriller. It has a central mystery, which is gradually unravelled with grace. Viggo Mortensen shines with one of the notable performance of the year, so engrossed is he into the character that for a moment, you wonder whether he is a Russian in real life.

5. The Happening
I am in the minority in praising this film. Many hate this film for its lack of 'explanation' for the strange events that took place. I don't see it as a problem. To me, its intention as a wake-up call to human kind is all the more effective by this deliberately ambiguous arrangement. If it is supplied with a logical explanation as most conventional mainstream movies do, viewers will have 'solution' in their mind, and the effects will thus be subdued. As human, We fear about an unexplained event that arrives when we least expect it to happen, and things are at its most distressing when there are uncertainties abound. Shyamalan knows that and he exploited that with good effect.
The great Alfed Hitchock too used the same style in 'The Birds', in his version of nature gone berserk tale. Shyamalan is obviously paying homage to Hitchock's 'The Birds' here, and he did so with his trademark quiet, spooky tone. He demonstrated again he's a master in evoking fear out of the simplest set-up. Consider the scene where a woman is speaking to a child over the phone, out of sudden, the child was murmuring words that doesn't make sense, 'I see calculus....I see calculus...'
Most natural phenomenal is still unexplained. The extreme, unpredictable weather condition we are experiencing now, is it really due to the so-called global warming? Are we entirely sure? What we had is a bunch of scientist giving out their theories as explanation, just as the way Shyamalan's 'The Happening' ends.

6. Rendition
What do you do if you are forced to do something that is aginst what you preached for? You outsource it. This is the subject matter of 'Rendition'.
In the movie, the American, who prides themselves as the gurdian of human rights, found themselves in the situation where they need to use torture in interrogating terrorist suspect. But doing that is aginst their principle, so to speak. Hence, the solution will be to 'outsource' the interrogation to another country.
Anwar El-Ibrahimi is an egyptian born American who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Suspected as a terrorist, he was transported to an annonymous country where horrible torture was used against him in order to extract information out of him.
This policy, known as the 'extraordinary rendition' in the US, is gien a intellectual treatment here in the film. Resisting the temptation of making a one-sided political statement, the filmmaker make us think through the 2 sides of this policy, and through the ordeal went through by Anwar and his helpless wife, we were distressed watching it.

7. Atonement
Adapted from a Ian McEwan's novel, director Joe Wright infused the film with a strong sense of literature. So strong that even the movie's oscar-winning score was insipred by the mechanical sound of a type writer.
It is a story about a life-long guilt and the struggle to redeem it.
The film is divided into 3 parts: pre-war (or rather the interval between the first and second world war), war time, and post-war. The first thrid is the crowning moment of the film; Briony (the excellent Saoirse Ronan), who was 13, in her childhood naïveté, wrongly accused Robbie (James McAvoy) and condenm him to jail. Briony's sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley), who was Robbie's lover, was heart-broken, and left the family. It's a family tragedy, and it is delicately executed by the filmmakers. Good Stuff.
Alas, the film grinds to a halt in the second thrid. The war-time poetry here feels detached from the excellent first thrid, loosing critical coherence and focus. Even the much talked-about five-minute tracking shot of the beach of Dunkrik came about as merely a great technical achievement that however, does not blend well into the movie.
The film regained focus in the final thrid. What a pity, it would have been a masterpiece if not for the lame second thrid. Still, for the sheer class of the first thrid, 'Atonement' is too significant to be missed.

8. Iron Man
The year 2008 saw 2 superhero films made it to my top 10 list, a rare phenomena indeed. One is the increadible 'The Dark Knight'. The other is the exhilaratingly fun 'Iron Man'.
Unlike 'The Dark Knight' which had leapt beyond the normal scope of the superhero genre, 'Iron Man' works very much within the conventional formula of the genre. No, it doesn't have deep, philosophical substance and social commentary. It is a simple tale of one-dimensional good guys and bad guys.
Nevertheless, the film works tremendously well, mainly due to the likable central characters. Downey played the hero Tony Stark with such charm and humour that we can't help liking him. when he escaped from his kidnappers, upon arriving in America, he said to his assistant, 'Two Things, a press conference, and...cheeseburger'. He then adds on, 'Cheesebruger first'. Seeing this, we can't help but screaming, 'This guy is cool!!!'
Gwyneth Paltrow played his loyal assistant and made us care as much about her as to Tony Stark.
From time to time, a movie came and reminds us that a movie doesn't have to be complex, deep and unconventional in order to be good. 'Iron Man' is one of such film.

9. Ip Man (叶问)
He is a charismatic, revered wing-chun master, a reluctant hero. Yet, he is soft-spoken, modest, and he shuns the limelight. He is not interested in fame, nor is he after political power. He'll rather satisfy his child-like passion for martial art in closed door. When he has to fight, he does so in a fearsome manner. And above all, he respects his wife.
Over the years, HK martial art genre has presented to us a host of Kung Fu master characters. It is not often that we are given someone who's this likable as Donnie Yuen's Ip Man.
Like 'Iron Man', this is the kind of movie with a template-based story, unashamedly formulaic, yet it works mainly due to its highly likable central character. Originality isn't its strength, one can easily grasp the shadow of Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury (精武门), Jet Li's Fearless' (霍元甲) here. Characterization is one-dimensional with the stereotyped devil-like Japanese army. Despite all these 'flaws', the movie is hell of a ride. We like Donnie Yuen's character so much that we go along with him, gasping when he's in danger, rejoicing when he triumps, and the action chereography is top notch.
Another prime example of a critical success factor for goodcommercial movie: carfting likable, convincing central characters whom the viewers care for

10. American Gangster
Many called it the 'The black Godfather', or 'The black Scarface', Ridlet Scott's 'American Gangster' delves into Fank Lucas (Denzel Washington)'s career with keen interest in the mechanics of the working of Lucas's empire. It is loaded with the kind of materials a MBA business class covers: sourcing materials from a low cost supplier, striking a exclusive deal with the supplier, building a brand, and, no kidding, even corporate social responsibility (CSR) by handing out turkeys on thanksgiving.
It's a admirable production as a whole. However, the temptation for me to compare it to David Cronenberg's 'Eastern Promises', another excellent gangster drama is inevitable. The 2 films can't be more different, although they both revolves around gangster, mafia and mob.For that matter, I like Cronenberg's film better. Its thriller approach came across as more refreshing, its leisurely pace lends a certain poignancy amidst the dark mystery looming around the corner.
'American Gangster' fast pacing came across as a little too fast for my liking. It has the feel of a typical holywood serious drama that comes out during the year end, ahead of oscar season. The kind of movies with a complex story, substansial ground to cover, and yet somehow trying to keep the running time under 160 minutes (for commercial reason?)
Somehow, I feel that materials like 'American Gangster' would have been told better with a running time of say, 3 hours and above.

Special Jury Prize
(Not quite there in the Top 10 but too good to be omitted)

1. Tropic Thunder
A sharp, intelligent satire disguised as a dumb, slapstick comedy. Ben Stiller's 'Tropic Thunder' takes a troop of Holywood actors into a dense trpical jungle to shoot a Vietnam war movie, the likes of the great 'Apocalypse Now'.
Along the way, Stiller takes a dark swipe at Holywwod. All things Holywood: actors obssesed with winning award, greedy film studio chief, egoistic celebrities, award-winning actors who 'lose' themselves in roles, over-the-hill action star wanting to prove that he can act by tackling serious roles, drug, gay celebrities......you name it, you get it here.
The blending of the smart substance with the dumb surface isn't exactly seamless. Nevertheless, Stiller third directorial effort has come a long way.

2. Cape No.7 (海角七号)
'Cape No.7' came with the reputation of a box office record breaker in Taiwan. Having watched that, it is a box office miracle to me, as the movie is not at all commercial. it is a coming-of-age movie given an art treatment.
The movie will be particularly endearing to the Taiwanese, for its strong sense of place and local culture. The tempo of the movie is slow and leisurely, one has to be patient watching it, but the patience will be well rewarded as the movie strolls through the bittersweet story of a group of ordinary Henngchun residents forming a warm-up band for an up-coming beach concert.Along the way the director refrain from any attempt in over-dramatising the story, no dramatic twist and turn, no weeping moment, just a down-to-earth story told with honesty and sincerity.The movie ends on a touching climatic mood. Strangely enough, it is not climatic in the mainstream Holywood way, it is climatic in a......musical way.
A special mention must be made of the influence of the supporting characters to this movie. As a unit, their role is much more than just 'supporting'. They are colourfully painted, from a young 10-year-old keyboardist right down to a charming 80-year-old who still holds the ambition of going on stage, each of them reflects on the ordinary people in real life who's just, well, ordinary, neither too beautiful nor too ugly, and far from being famous.
The movie is not without its flaws. I don't think the melodrama-ly worded literature element integrates well with the movie (See 'Atonement' for how it should be done). As far as coming-of-age movies go, there have been many exceptional works: Cameron Crowe's 'Almost Famous', Gurinder Chadha's 'Bend It Like Beckam', and Nkiki Caro's 'Whale Rider'. 'Cape No 7' probably can't be categorised as among the best, but it is a notable entry for its sincerity.

The Year's Worst

1. 10,000 B.C.
The whole movie is a mess. It has a haphazard sense of time and place. In one moment, you are in vikings land. In another, you are in sci-fi era middle east. What??? It is as if the filmmakers using the lamest of excuse to parade a diverse cross-genre spectacles to the viewers, so as to show off the cash that they have splashed on the production. Oh please......
They got the tone wrong all over the movie. A supposedly romantic scene between the hero and heroine is so...corny that I have to hold myself from chuckling out loud in the cinema. Ooppss...excsue me.
I am finding it hard to write on further, I must confess that I don't remember much about the movie anymore. Yes, it is that forgettable.

2. Esacpe From Huang Shi
The kind of movie with a noble subject matter, casting the likes of Chow Yun-Fat and Datuk Michelle Yeoh, a very promising prospect, no? The result is however, just a plain...boring movie.
What it lacks is a theme. Perhaps it could have put some focus on the political side of things on the Nanking Massacre. Or perhaps they could have explore the inner struggle of the main characters. Now, that would have been interesting.
The movie, however, sidestepped all that and just moves along the event religously. It's like reading a history textbook, really.

3. Kinta
The first Malaysian Chinese-language mainstream film is a production went haywire. According to the director's interview, what started off as a noble intention of telling the life story of the Chinese immigrants to Malaya in the early days, is however forced into aspectacular u-turn of chopping, re-editing into a 90 minute no-brainer martial art film, due to 'commercial' reason.
The result is a movie that is neither here not there. It is way too thin as a serious drama, it is also not there as a no-brainer martial art film, due to its lingering art element, such as the non-linear narative structure that does not fit in a material this thin.
A no-brainer martial art film can be good, as 'Ip Man' shows. Let's hope that director CL Ho moves on and make a better movie in his next project. Malaysian Boleh!