Crossing Over (2009): One would easily be reminded of 2004's Oscar-winning "Crash", a movie which centers on race and issues of immigration, and the multitude of characters are linked by a single event. In "Crossing Over", you get a whole lot more stories, but none of which were tied together by any significant storyline, except for a few characters' whose lives intertwine one another in some parts of the movie. The audience could only catch a glimpse of each characters' lives and not being able to appreciate any character development. The film centers mainly on the main theme of "Green Card", and tells various stories, all of which explores interesting issues of race, religion and immigration, but when thrown together into a 2 hour movie, the result is a mess. The list of stories presented in the film are as follows: 1) A Muslim girl with conflicting ideology about terrorism threatens her family's deportation, 2) A musician tries to become a Jew to get his work permit, 3) an Australian gets in bed with an immigration worker to obtain her green card, and 4) the immigration worker's wife tries to adopt an African child, 5) a teenage Korean immigrant is tied down with gang violence before being naturalized to become a US citizen 6) an Iraqi-American police officer coming to terms with the murder of his sister, 7) an immigration officer (played by a stoic Harrison Ford) re-traces his steps in order to find a deported Mexican mother to reunite with her child. That's 7 singular plots lumped into one mess of a movie. 3/10
Frontiers (2007): A French horror flick filled with A-to-Z cliches. A group of young, rebellious friends stranded at a creepy house or motel out in the middle of nowhere? Checked. Scenes of gory, in-your-face splattering violence? Checked. A dysfunctional (sometimes cannibalistic) family of psychopaths bent on preying on road-trippers or hitchhikers? Checked. Plus the usual heroine who makes it out and survives at the end? Doubly-checked. This movie reeks of every other recent horror films from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Martyrs, Wolf Creek, High Tension, The Hills Have Eyes, to the Human Centipede (check out the Nazi-like villain which is almost identical to the one Frontiers) which I've seen lately. 4/10
The Tournament (2009): Movies about individuals pitted in a "last-man-standing" contest are cliche & overdone. There was "The Condemn" (with Stone Cold Steve Austin) based loosely on the original Japanese cult movie "Battle Royale". And then there was "Gamer" (with the "300" guy) - and now "The Tournament". How many crap reiterations of Battle Royale can Hollywood churn out every year? 5/10
A Perfect Getaway (2009): Bore-fest, Seen the twist coming pack a punch. David Twohy should have just stick to making Sci-Fi movies and Riddick sequels instead of casting a Resident Evil star in a vacation-thriller. 4/10
Cell 211 (2009): Intense prison drama involving an infiltration by a rookie prison guard downplayed by its convoluted ending. 6/10
Nanjing! Nanjing! (2009): A gritty, realistic and exceptional portrayal of the life under the brutal regime of the Japanese during WWII in Nanjing. Filmed in black and white and evocative of Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List" which follows a similar historic event and theme, "Nanjing Nanjing" is well-acted (with an international cast), well-photographed, and tells both sides of the story. 9/10
Flashpoint (2007): In Wilson Yip's follow up to SPL, the fight scenes look more like the characters are in a tussle rather than brutally brawling the hell out of one another. It's lame. 5/10
Little Big Soldier (2010): Jackie Chan's foray into period war drama - expect his trademark slapstick humour in some parts of the movie but be prepared to be disappointed by a somber ending, which downplays Jackie Chan's performance and the movie in general. 6/10
Extract (2009): Expect didn't quite hit the note: bland in some parts. Definitely not as great as "Office Space" or "Idiocracy". 6/10
Planet 51 (2009): Lackluster animation with dull, generic character designs referencing past Sci-Fi classics and no originality of its own. 5/10
A.V. (2005) : A Hong Kong "coming-of-age" tale about a group of college students trying make the "best" of their youth by going through thick and thin in order to nail a Japanese adult video (AV) pornstar. The plot provides several hilarious moments (such as the protagonist snorting sugar at a dining table in an attempt to "woo" girls who are into bad boy antics, and another scenario whereby the group has a hard time deciding who to enter a mama shop to purchase Viagra) given the purely carnal motivation of the characters. Although the film remains a comedy at heart, it unfortunately digresses into a melodrama with an abrupt, inexplicable ending in the third act. Coupled with the mixed messages and missed opportunity of humour, the film is a disappointment. 6/10
The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03) : I've been delaying my viewing of what many deemed to be "THE Trilogy" after Star Wars, for more than 5 years since I last bought the bootleg DVDs back in Thailand. These movies were 3 hours each and the dialogues are English-accented, so it wasn't long before I got bored and fell asleep when I began watching the first (Fellowship of the Rings) when I was about 14 years old. I've never had any inherent interest for fantasy flicks with elves and swordfights, nor was I able to understand what the characters were saying - reading the English subtitles were a chore too. But when it came down to viewing all 3 (now that they're released in high definition), it's admirable how Peter Jackson, the director whose past works include cheap-looking indie horror such as "Bad Taste" amd "Braindead", could craft out three 3-hour long epics each filled with movie artistry and storytelling deftness. One would have to see it (especially in HD) for himself to truly appreciate the beauty in the trilogy. 9/10
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009): Quirky and fun animation with beautiful spctacular eye candies. The story about an inventor who came up with a device that rained food justifies for great use of computer graphic. The character and voiceacting cast is great (even Mr. T is in it); all in all makes for a delightful viewing. I just wished I'd seen it on the big screen instead of converting it to be viewed on my iPod. 9/10
From Paris with Love (2010): One post from IMDB reads, "[the villains in "From Paris with Love"]: Asians, Blacks, Pakistanis, Kids, Pakistani Women, French Women, Muslims. Why wasn't this called "Americans Shooting Foreigners and women in Europe?" Having seen the director's previous work "Taken" (2008), I'd knew this movie starring John Trovolta (in his reprisal role of a bad-ass just like in The Taking of Pelham 123) would be another shot-em-up flick - but I didn't expect it to suck that badly. This mediocre film's all action and not a sensible, logical storyline that follows. Even Babylon A.D.'s better than this crap-fest. 3/10
Bodyguards and Assassins (2009): A star-studded cast including Jackie Cheung, Donnie Yen of Yip Man fame, and many others couldn't salvage this wreck of a film. Fun fact: the opening title's soundtrack is a rip-off of the music in "Munich". 5/10
Knowing (2009): Usual stiff acting from Nicholas Cage, coupled with a horrid script, and an atrocious storyline, with absurd "The Day the Earth Stood Still (remake)" moments. 1+1 (for some of the visual effects, which looked amazing) out of 10.
Battle for Haditha (2007): When it comes to films which re-creating the "truth" of events that had occurred in real life (films such as "United 93") I always try to maintain my skepticism - for fear of letting dramatization get in the way of facts. Knowing this film is based on facts, Battle for Haditha's recreation of the horrific event of the massacre of innocent civilian is deeply riveting and engrossing. It may not be 100% factually accurate, but it calls for a necessary viewing. 8/10
Coraline (2009): Coraline, with its visual flair apparent of "The Nightmare Before Christmas", features nothing-short-of-amazing visuals; a definite milestone for the stop-motion medium. But an ultimate-letdown in terms of pacing and flow of the story, and character development. Beautiful film nonetheless - 6/10.
Sherlock Holmes (2009): Guy Ritchie's first "period" drama, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, is a big-budget Hollywood movie which departs from the director's usual run-of-the-mill "snatch"-type flicks. The movie has excellent set and costume design with a stellar cinematography (including a stunning slow-mo moment involving explosives). Downey Jr, more noticeable from his definitive role as Tony Sparks from Iron Man, plays out Sherlock with a fitting British-accent which shows his obvious acting talent. Guy Ritchie seems to have outdone himself making this period film. At least it's better than his dreadful past films such as "Revolver (2005)" and "RocknRolla (2008)" - 7/10.
The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009): Simply put: This is Big-Labowski-meets-Burn-After-Reading, except that it doesn't quite meet up the absurdities A movie about soldiers who were trained for their "psychic" power and use of non-lethal weapons. A star-studded cast doesn't help redeem the stupidity of the movie. An utter disappointment. 3/10
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009): Nifty little animation which came surprisingly from a live-action-oriented director of such offbeat dramas as " Bottle Rocket" and " The Darjeeling Limited". 8/10
Brokedown Palace (1999): 2 lifelong female buddies go on a holiday trip to Thailand, and gets framed for smuggling drugs in their luggage at the airport. One thing I dislike about this film's its soundtrack: the electric-guitar, alternative jazz music just seems disjoint with the entirely solemn mood of the film. And by the way, watching Claire Danes act is as good as looking at a brick wall for the duration of the movie - completely devoid of emotion, believability, and liveliness. 4/10
Open Water (2003): A cheap-looking, consumer-camcorder-quality horror flick which descends into utter despair and total-fatalism and leaves nothing of human value redeemable for the audience. Spoiler: the couple left behind in the waters by their tour group drowned or gets eaten by the sharks. 5/10
Ghost Town (2008): From David Koeppe, screenwriter of such blockbusters as Jurassic Park, comes a comedic film about a man who sees dead people in New York. Ricky Gervais plays the protagonist, but in an annoying Brit accent. His character also made an ignorant remark about Chinese names being funny, which I found slightly distasteful and offensive. The film has some funny and witty moments and an intriguing theme about how unless the living could reconcile with the dead, the dead could never really be absolved from what they had left undone. But it doesn't really pack a punch in terms of its hilarity towards the end. 7/10
The Invention of Lying (2009): Really promising premise about a world where nobody lies, but underscored with an underwhelming take on the script and story. Some laughs here and there but overall a predictable and shoddy storytelling. The absence, or lack thereof of a moving soundtrack, coupled with the uneven pacing of the film makes this a below-average film with unfulfilled potential. 5/10
Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? (2008): "Super-size Me" filmmaker Morgan Spurlock had placed himself on the line to test out a fast-food-only diet in his previous documentary, and sacrificed his health badly to prove that fast-food is bad. Now he attempts to find out where no.1 man of Al Queda, Osama Bin Laden, is, before coinciding with the birth of his first kid (as though he's acting on some moral imperative to "rid" the world of "evil"). Here's the fact: if the CIA can't even locate the most wanted man on earth, a documentary filmmaker sure as hell can't. Plus, Spurlock chickens out at the end when he reaches Peshawar (border of Pakistan and Afghanistan which forbids foreigners from entering) because "it ain't worth it" risking his life finding Osama. Perhaps the title's a bit misleading, but it's just a ploy for Spurlock to explore social-political issues and stereotypical views of the rest of the world about the Middle East. 6/10
À l'intérieur (Inside) (2007): This horror-flick about a pregnant woman being stalked by a psychotic lady in her own home made me go like, "Oh that's f--ked up. She didn't just do that" half the time while I was watching it. The film's an exercise in extreme, graphic violence (on women in particular), the invasion and vulnerability of the maternal, and even more excessive violence. The special effect looks cheap, the slow-pacing of the film dragged out the tension, the music score's jagged and out of place (think The Hills Have Eyes [2006 remake] with the distortion and heart-thumping noises and all), plus there isn't much of any redeemable value beyond all of the bloodshed seen on screen. 4/10
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (2009): This remake of a 1950s classic carries forward the gripping (but not really plausible) tale of a man who framed himself for murder in order to indict a district attorney whom he suspects to be forging DNA evidence to boost his conviction rate. However, poor editing, pacing, stiff acting from the rest of the cast (except Michael Douglas as the villain D.A.), an incoherent double-"twist" to the story's ending makes this film a 5/10.
Halloween II (2009): I saw this flick strangely in the morning while I was on my way to camp on the shuttle bus (the bus driver was playing it on the onboard video player). Hard to stomach scenes of graphic violence (including a scene of decapitation by the masked killer character) at 7:30am in the morning. Nonetheless, I went back home and finished out what I started and watched through scene after scene of senseless murders and profane dialogue (with an unbridled use of f-words) - nothing we hadn't seen before in horror films these days. An unnecessary sequel to a remake to a 70s classic at best. 3/10
Mary and Max (2009): lovely, poignant animated feature with a sterling cinematography, fluid claymation and a touching story about a young Australian girl born to a dysfunctional family, Mary, reaching out to Max, a New Yorker who happens to an eccentric and mentally-handicapped individual. The soundtrack, which consists of variations to a chromatic piano piece is really fitting and evokes and stirs emotions as well. Highly recommended. 9/10
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