Changeling (2008): Gripping, moving drama about a single mom in the late 20s in America trying to find her lost child and her struggle being compounded by the state's corrupt police force and lack of response. A must-see. 9/10
Invictus (2009): Clint Eastwood made really great films in the recent years (Letters From Iwo Jima, Gran Torino), but this film about South Africa's rugby team making the world cup just doesn't make the cut. Morgan Freeman's appearance as peacemonger Nelson Mandela is great as anticipated (though occasionally slipping into his American accent), but the dialogue and acting coming from the rest of the cast just seems stiff, seemingly lacking heart and soul. Plus the film got really boring toward the end (with that same old cliche "final" winning game as seen in all sports movies) since I have no idea how to play rugby. 6/10
Kung Fu Panda (2008): A surprisingly funny and great animation with great characters and voice-acting. The animation is fluid and the backdrops beautiful. Kung Fu Panda comes highly-recommended! 9/10
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988): The highlight of this film's its fusion of live-action and hand-draw, classical animation, which makes for a really unique film where real-life figures interact with wacky looney toons and disney characters. If only the dialogue and acting were half as good as the technical achievements seen in the film. 6/10
Year One (2009): From the director of Groundhog Days (one of the best comedies ever) comes possibly one of worst comedies ever made this year: ancient cavemen and biblical characters acting and talking in modern-day lingual. The script sucks, the acting is stiff and the movie is unfunny. 3/10
Assassination of a High School President (2008): Despite what the title may suggest, this film's far from a solemn, serious drama/crime flick, but instead it's a comedy with a detective story in it. The crime revolves around a whole bunch of stolen SATs papers, and Bobby Funke, who writes for St. Donovan high school's newspaper, attempts to find out the culprit behind it. Without spoiling anything, the plot isn't as intriguing as I thought plus the twist at the end of the film simply made me go, "That's it? Is that all they've got? An unsatisfying conclusion after all this build-up?" 6/10
Step Brothers (2008): Lame slapstick comedy about 2 men-child (played by Will Farrell and John C. Reilly) becoming step-brothers due to their single parents' marriage. One of the several WTF-moments in the film includes Will Farrell licking white dog shit in close-up. 5/10
Paranormal Activity (2007): Filmed in the style of "Blair-witch Project" (handheld, shaky cam with storytelling from the people behind the camera), the film captures the ongoing strange events happening within a couple's home. "Paranormal Activity" looks dirt cheap and features unknown actors - which make the premise and characters more authentic. There are some really creepy moments and scares in it. 6/10
A Night at the Roxbury (1998): Spin-off movies from TV show sketches just don't hold well together (think Chris Rock's Pootie Tang), sure, the SNL's "Night at Roxbury" sketch's just ridiculously funny, but as an hour-and-a-half feature film, and without Jim Carrey, the story and humour just doesn't hold up. 2/10
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008): A romance comedy where a guy tries to handle a breakup initiated by his girlfriend, a popular TV actress. The acting and story are good but the film's a tad too slow-moving. 6/10
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard (2009): Live Hard, Sell Hard (2009): Another one of those vulgar, lame comedies, you can expect more fart jokes, penis-centric references and absurd moments with Will Farrell as a cameo skydiver who died misplacing his parachute with a bagpack full of dildos. 5/10
Good Hair (2009): You'd think Chris Rock would make a funny and satirical "documentary" as he did on the Chris Rock Show. On the contrary, this documentary fails on several ends as it covers a niche area (black people's hair), is biased towards the African-Americans, and has NO funny bits despite being hosted by a comedian. 3/10
Mars Attacks! (1996): This film was strangely creepy and frightening the first time I saw it as kid. Went back and watched it again to "re-experience" that moment, but the film just turned out cheesy. 6/10
Law Abiding Citizen (2009): Great thrilling film about a vigilante taking revenge against those who killed his family with intense performance from Gerald Butler and Jamie Foxx. Too bad the ending was a total cop-out. 7/10
The Limits of Control (2009): My rating: 2/10. Director Jim Jarmusch has a few good flicks (e.g. Broken Flowers, Dead Man) in the past, but this film is pure esoteric. The Limits of Control will even make the hardest of hardest cinephiles and arthouse fans go snoring. There is no build-up, no pacing, no fitting music, only minimum pretentious dialogue and arbitrary walking-around-and-meeting-strangers lameness. The only redeeming factors about this film's not-too-shabby Chris Doyle cinematography, and a nude scene with a spectacles-wearing sexy vixen (see below!):
The Final Destination (2009): A regurgitation of the popular "Death has a design" series. The first one was great & original, the second was shit, the third was okay, and so's this. Spoiler alert: Everyone dies at the end, just like the first in the series. But you may have already guessed that. 5/10
Final Destination 2 (2003): A promising build-up (involving a major pile-up accident on the highway) but an ultimate letdown in the latter half of the film, this sequel to the first Final Destination is disappointing at best. 4/10
Moon (2009): An intriguing film about a lone-mining-worker on the moon who meets his doppelganger. I was expecting much more from the story but the film kept it simple. The score, visual effects and cinematography however are excellent for an independent film like this. 7/10
Saw VI (2009): The sequel to the sequel to the sequel to the sequel to the sequel of the original Saw film (the first and only good one) - with what viewers would come to expect: a never-ending storyline to the Jigsaw serial killings and lots more gruesome, gory and graphic torture devices. Wonder what sick, demented script writers would come up once and once again with these stuff. 5/10
Gamer (2009): The visuals in this flick are as wacky and over-the-top (see below for instance) as you would expect from the creators of the "Crank" series. The story's like Johnny Mnemonic and The Running Man, where the main guy's in a game of kill or be killed. The violence, gore and sexual imagery here are over-the-top too, but sadly doesn't compensate for the lack of a coherent story. 6/10
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