Zookeeper (US) - Second-rate Dr.Doolittle wannabe (yawn!)

Zookeeper
Synopsis:
This movie is about a zookeeper, Griffin Keyes (Kevin James) who takes care of a the animals in the zoo with care and patience. When his girlfriend, Stephanie (Leslie Bibb) rejected his marriage proposal due to his less ambition and work as a zookeeper, he decided to quit his work. However, when all the animals in the zoo got to know about this, they decided to hatch a plan to bring Griffin together with Stephanie who happens to visit the zoo and found that both still has some feeling for each other although Stephanie is now with his ex-boyfriend, Gale (Joe Rogan). During one unfortunate incident, Griffin Keyes stumble upon a meeting with animals where the animals spoke english and panic. However, after knowing their intention, he went on a hilarious journey under the advice of the animals to win Stephanie back.  
Review:
During a lazy afternoon, i decided to watch this movie after purchasing it for few weeks. The reason is because I do not have much expectation of this movie simply because it should be a predictable plot where the zookeeper lost his love, win his love but lost his identity and animal friends, win back his identity and his real love, the end. And i was not wrong on that aspect. However, i am more into what kind of hilarious scenes that the filmmaker is able to churn out from this old favorite storyline. And the verdict is not so much. I felt that Kevin James tries hard to make himself comical by doing some comical fall every now and then but its not really funny unlike the versatile Eddie Murphy in Dr.Doolittle. I felt that the supporting cast did a much better role such as Joe Rogan character, Gale. He is very hilarious and with his presence, the movie is more alive and funnier. I cannot believe that the once host of "Fear Factor" has great potential to be a comedian actor. Now for the animals, all are quite bored with the exception of a gorilla named Bernie who steal the scene from all the animals and human actors. The best scenes were Bernie and Griffin chilling out together in TGIF. That is the best scene of the whole movie. Other than that, there is nothing worth mentioning.

Verdict:

I give this movie just a 2 out of 5 and the points were given to both the gorilla named Bernie and Joe Rogan. 

Mysterious Island (China) - Poor Acting, Poor Story, Poor Cinematography

Mysterious Island
Synopsis:
The movie started with a young mother and her son escaping from some invisible evil force that has attacked them from . The mother is thrown out from the building and killed while the son managed to hid in a small hole inside the jungle. However, it shows that the evil force manage to found him. Then, the movie forward to the present day where a group of people - 4 men and 4 women traveling to an island on a sailboat together with a crew of cameraman and TV presenter to take part in a survival game with the winning pair get US$1 million. Each were given a map with the target location to seek while surviving days in the jungle-island. When traveling near to the target island, their sailboat is knocked-down by an invisible evil force and the group of people is stranded at the island with only 1 pair, Shen Yilin (Mini Yang) & Peng Fei (Jordan Chan) manage to hold-on to the map. However, the rest of the groups tries to steal the map away to win the competition and leave the island but along the way, they were attacked by wild boars and bees. This leave some of the group members separated from each other but somehow manage to find their way to an old house with each of the group members name dangle together with individual urn. The message stated that if the urn is broken, then the name of the person from the urn will surely be killed. At first, all dismiss this as a joke but when Peng Fei was attacked by a mysterious force and thrown from the hill, all became suspicious of each other & also a leper ghost. One by one, the group members started to disappear and got killed until remaining Shen Yilin. She found the hole in the jungle with the skeletons of a nun and another person. Could it be the boy who disappear or a ghost searching for vengeance?
Review: 
Lets move straight to the point. The only reason why people flock to the theaters or even buy the movie is because of its star actor, Jordan Chan and this is consider as China's first supernatural movie or some sort. But beyond the star actor who does a horrible job of actin, the movie looks of cheap budget, horrible supernatural effect, loud and nonsense soundtrack and all actors are horrible in their acting. Lets dissect each category because i sure love to complain on horrible movies that is not up to par for screening. Firstly, HK star Jordan Chan who is famed for acting alongside Ekin Cheng in Young & Dangerous series, seems like only interested in milking money from China movie production. In this movie, he doesn't put in much effort in the acting and furthermore acting goofy and jokingly that it almost seems like i'm watching some sitcom comedy movie or something. Next is the cheap budget looks in the entire movie. The cinematography is so cheap that it looks like the movie has been shot a decade earlier. I do understand that if the budget is an issue, the director should at least get a decent camera and shot beautiful scenery to plug other loopholes like storyline or acting. Next, horrible supernatural effect. In today's world of film making, effect of white smoke and the camera moving in and out to reflect that there is some supernatural is so child's play and cheap. It ruins the whole movie with such sequences and even spoil further with its loud soundtrack. I notice that mainland films tends to shock people with its high pitch sound effect. It doesn't matter if the scene involve scary scene or not, they just turn up the volume every now and then to shock viewers. Instead of being shocked, i had to run the extra mile to turn down the volume and the up the volume when there is dialog again. Now, lets come to their acting in this movie. The acting for all the actors including Jordan Chan is so bad that you tend to just switch off the movie after 10 minutes in. The mainland actresses in this movie seems to take off their shirt every now and then to show their curvature features in bikini. Perhaps the director of the movie felt that its more sell-able with hot girls in bikinis but it doesn't. Also, i still do not understand the logic of a Japanese participant in the group who do not speak chinese is able to understand and reply in Japanese while the other participans are able to understand and speak to him in chinese?? Perhaps if you found out the logic behind it, you can tell me.

Verdict:

I give this a 1 star out of 5. Overall movie is poorly done and shouldn't be done without proper storyline & acting.    
   


 

Nine Dead (US) - An interesting puzzle but lame ending

 Nine Dead
Synopsis:
The movie started with a hooded & masked kidnapper kidnapping various individuals while they are eating, with friends, in car basement, and etc. A total of nine strangers are being caught and held in an enclose room in an abandon warehouse. The kidnapper then inform all the 9 strangers that they have 10 minutes to discuss and tell him why they are all here. If the strangers are unable to answer his question, then each one will die and the clock will reset back to 10 minutes and the same question will be posed again. All nine people will be killed if they are unable to find out the answer in time and if they managed to answer it, then the kidnapper will surrender to the police and release them. The 9 individuals are an (1) actor (wannabe), (2) deputy prosecutor, (3) cop, (4) stripper owner, (5) black guy with criminal record, (6) pedophile, (7) insurance agent, (8) chinese lady who doesn't speak english  and (9) a priest. As the clock is ticking ,all of them overcome their background and their differences to find out why they were locked up by provided information on what they had done previously that might have cause this.  As each tries to solve the puzzle, one-by-one, the kidnapper came in, shot and killed one of the strangers but not before whispering to them the answer. So, are they able to solve the case before they are being killed or manage to uncover the secret that lies behind their kidnapping.
Review:
The premise and the set-up of the movie is nice. The story is also quite interesting and the characters are never dull. Of course in the beginning, the movie likens Saw franchises but it is never heavy on the gore but more on the solving of the puzzle. In the beginning, the movie looks a bit amateur and looks a bit cheap like a made for TV movie while the kidnapping is going on. But as the 9 individuals are being held, then the movie starts to look promising. There are some quirky dialogue and intelligent one liners. However, i felt that some of the individuals are not being used enough and do not have much script to work on. So, some of them merely picking on their handcuff and some just walk around and i thought that they were going to find a way to escape. I felt that Melissa Joan Hart acting is not so good in this movie, in fact i felt that she talks way to fast and almost sounded like she was bitching rather than talking. At one point, some of the story does stray, basically to fill-in the time slot of the movie but luckily it didn't sway that much. Also, due to its cheap budget, i saw a deja vu where they show the abandon warehouse with a car passing by, then again the same clip of the warehouse and car passing by. This is pretty lame and cheap. Overall, this movie is not as bad as i thought it would be. In fact, i was kept guessing why the 9 people are locked up and i did guess the answer correctly during the final quarter of the movie before it was reveal. The end is quite lousy and it should have ended with a good big bang, but it falls short.

Verdict:

I give this movie a 2.5 star over 5.

Go For It - Cliche Storyline with Weak Dance Routine

Go For It (US)
Synopsis:
This dance flick revolves around Carmen who is from Mexico, now living in Chicago with her parents, dad (works as a garbage collector), mum (housewife) and 2 brothers (older & younger). Her family is pinning on her to be more successfully than them, by getting an education and perhaps makes a good living than them. However, Carmen has a great interest in dancing and mostly out dancing in the underground clubs thus, affected her education and got into troubles with petty issues. However, Carmen's professor saw the potential in her and encourage her to enrolled in a prestigious dance school in California. But Carmen is not interested because of a new found love in Jared from same class and staying together with her best friend, Gina. However, when things turns for the worse with Gina's death due to severe beating from her cocaine-smoking boyfriend and Jared's cheating on her, she decided to finally improve her life by attending the audition for the dance school, much to the delight of her parents, brothers and her professor.   
Review:
For quite awhile, i kept thinking when will we have a good dance flick which combines good / decent storyline and a good dance routine. I doubt this will happen soon by judging from this movie goes. In fact, i think it will be a long long time before we see any good dance flick. Step Up 2 was an okay movie with cool slick dance but still the same cliche' story line. Go For It! is also the same tempo - with rag to riches theme of a girl with no hope for the future but a good dancer searching for her dream.  Is all dance flick all about rags to riches? There must be some good decent story that they can churn up. Lets move back to this movie acting by first pointing out that Aimee Garcia as Carmen does not looks her age as a student, her looks are more of a 24 to 28 years old and her acting is extremely bad. I felt that Gina Rodriguez as her best friend, Gina is more quirky and portray better emotional expression than Carmen amid only few screen time. So, perhaps with the bad acting and weak storyline, the dance routine will cover-up all the weakness in this film. Most dance flicks banks in on their dance routine to make the movie more sell-able. But, the dance routine in this movie is bad. There are only 4 dance routine - including Carmen's solo audition and out of these, only 2 dances are worth mentioning (final dance battle & Carmen solo). Amid all the dances are performed by females, but the energy is not there and the dance routine were made like a copy-cat Step-Up 3D: In your face style routine but failed miserable. The only one good thing about this movie is the capturing of the movie itself - it looks expensive and almost have Hollywood kind of production.  
Verdict:
I give this a 1 star out of 5.

The Reef (Aust) - A Bloody Good One - Shark Alert!

The Reef (Australia)
Synopsis: 
The movie started off with a couple (Matt & Suzie) together with Matt's sister Kate going for a sail in Luke's sailboat in Queensland. Luke was once an item with Kate but they broke off due to Kate's insecurity and went back to Sydney. So, Luke thought that perhaps he is able to rekindle with Kate during this trip. While sailing, their sailboat hits an underwater rock and suddenly the boat is thrown upside down. Based on Luke's experience, the boat is slowly drifting away to the open sea , away from the island (Turtle Island) that they were previously snorkeling around. So the only alternative is to make a swim back to the island which they target is about 10km while they have the strength and still not drifted too far out. Luke's co-sailor, Warren decided to stay on boat due to his phobia as a fisherman that he fears the sharks in the water.  So, Matt, Suzie, Kate and Luke makes the journey to the island but lurking in the waters in the Great White Shark. One by one, they are being attacked and pick-off.
Review:
This movie started off slow with a bit of character development but it's main focus was the capturing of the beautiful sea and island. The action begins after the sailboat incident which is roughly after 15mins~20mins. When the action start, it does not let off until the credit finishes. The action is not the raw action that you find in Jaws or other Hollywood action movies but the action and scare is very realistic. With minimal sound and effect and all the actors are in the water, it almost felt like we are also in the water. Director Andrew Traucki really works his magic in terms of capturing the fear in the unknown water and being haunted by the deadliest creature in the sea. The shark movement is very minimal, in fact you will not really see much of the shark and its attack, but you will somehow felt it and felt the fear of this fearful fish and its teeth. The actors are very good in the acting and the showcase of fear, panic, anxiety are well portray by these 4 fine actors and the actions are also very local in real life. To act in a movie with only the ocean around is very difficult and to keep the suspense and the plot so well together makes this a good movie to watch but patience is needed to enjoy this movie.

Verdict:

Overall, I give this movie a 4 star out of 5 for being realistic and for being the best shark movie with realistic, suspense and great acting cast.

Ironclad (US) - The Final Stand minus Inspiration Theme

Ironclad (US)
Synopsis:
The movie is during the medieval times (around year 1215). During that time the barons of England forces King John out of the throne due to this tyranny and the lust for power. Before his ousted, King John and the barons signed an agreement called the Magna Carta, to upheld the rights of free-man. However, King John betray the agreement and began his quest of conquering back his country and killing everyone who has betrayed him. In his path of destruction, there is the Rochester castle that stood in the middle between King John and victory. In order to stop King John's march, the barons send out a team of knights to stop him at all cost and to ensure that the Rochester castle does not fall else the whole country will fall. During that time, the barons has seek out the French help and hope that they will arrive time.
Review:
I do not particularly love medieval movies, i enjoy the gore and the war of it but i felt that most of this movies do not have much substance and a lot of this movie are more towards real life event and region overtone. For those who do not know the history of it will be drown of confusion most of the time. The only medieval movie i love the most is probably Mel Gibson's Braveheart. However, i am quite interested to watch this movie since i heard much of its violence and gore. The movie story is easy to watch, where we see King John played brilliantly by Paul Giamatti going haywire by killing and slashing in way through using his troops. Paul Giamatti has the enigma of playing a psycho killer and in this case, a psycho king with love of power and violence. However one cannot be said for the lead knight for the church / baron, James Purefoy. He has the enigma and almost looks like Thomas Jane / Hugh Jackman in certain angle. With so many films under his belt, i would presume that his acting would have been good but i felt that he didn't manage to show more of himself during the screen time. He didn't show the charismatic of a hero knight that is suppose to save the castle. Also, director, Jonathan English did not bring the awe & the emotional rush that Mel Gibson brings / or even Peter Jackson LOTR - The Two Towers when the orcs swarmed Rohan castle and Aragon, Gimli, Legolas making a final stand. That emotional and inspirational feelings needs to be achieve to create in such a movie where the theme is the final stand. But all we get is the gore, fighting and clashing between guys in knight amour. The gore and the fighting are quite well executed but i guess that is not enough to complete me.

Verdict: 

I give this a 3 star out of 5

Iron Doors (US) - Running on 100m but Losing Gas before Finishing Line

Iron Doors (US)
Synopsis:
Its a simple story of a man woke up after having some heavy drinking (although not shown) inside a locked steel door room. The steel door looks like a bank vault and there are nothing inside the room but a steel locked cupboard. The man begin to think that its a joke done by his friends and treat of it as a joke until he realized that he has been trapped and played a sinister game by someone or something on the other side of the door. He tries to escape but unable to, so he manage to pry open the cupboard and inside it contain a hammer, chisel, a blowtorch, 2 canister of gas for the blowtorch, goggle for protection. There are no food and no water, only one dead rat, maggots and flies. So, he began his quest for freedom using the tools but the tools have its specific purposes - the blowtorch is unable to be used to melt the iron doors. After giving up on burning through the door, he manage to chip bits by bits of the wall using the hammer and a small chisel. However, the walls are separated by an iron fence - thus the use of the blowtorch. With hunger & thirst beginning to wear down the guy, he began to feast on the maggots on the rats and also drink his own urine to survive. Finally, he is able to break the wall and reach to the other side of the room. However, the other room is also similar with a locked vault. But, instead of the cupboard, he found a coffin and a standing lamp. Inside the coffin is an girl of an african origin who is unable to speak english. So, both are trying to figure a way out but communication makes it difficult for them. Again, they used the same method of hacking down the walls but found that the iron doors automatically open when the didn't look at it. So, after using this solution, they manage to open the doors but found another door again. Without food, without water and almost on verge of dying, they give up trying and at that instance, the door manage to open. And both walk out to a very beautiful jungle, almost like a nirvana.

Review: 
That this is an independent movie that i picked off from the DVD shelf not too long ago. It has a few logos mark on the front cover where it indicates of this film getting some awards or being selected for some film festival. It looks promising with just a simple title / storyline. So, i was thinking why the heck not. This movie is engaging in the beginning, almost look like a Saw movie with gadgets for you to find our way out, and the grossness of eating maggots and drinking your own urine. But after awhile, you found out that this looks like a one man movie. The actor Axel Wdekind is quite good considering that he is the only one acting for much of the movie until another actress Rungano Nyoni joins him. Half of the movie, we see Axel whining and complaining while hacking his way out. It can be quite annoying after awhile and feels the need to fast forward your video while he keeps on whining. But i would say that it was quite an engaging movie for much of the 2/3 of the movie, anticipating who is the person locking them up, whether he is able to escape their games, and etc. However the last 1/3 of the movie and the finale will totally make people curse because the director just lets the audience think of the end. The end of the movie shows that both walks out to the jungle and then the end credits begin to roll. I for one jumped out of the sofa and shout WTF. So, the viewer can think that the couple manage to escape to a place in the jungle while i for once do not think so. I think the couple finally had their last breathe and the things they saw is the other world. Anyhow, the director should just let us out of the misery and tell us how it ends especially after all we have to endure of the whining.
 Verdict:
I give this movie just an average 2.5 out of 5 star and mainly due to its engaging story and a one-man show. But the ending left much to be desired. Its like running a 100m race but before the finishing line, we lost all momentum.

My All Time Gem #1: Windstruck (Korean)

Windstruck (Korea)

Synopsis: 
The movie started with a girl, named Kyung-Jin on the verge of jumping off a high-rise building and then flash-back on the start of the story. The story started with Officer Kyung-Jin who has mistaken a school teacher, Myungwoo of thief and quickly apprehend him despite his protest of innocent. After the misunderstanding has been cleared, both are fated to meet again when Myungwoo became a voluntary to attached to an officer for crime prevention campaign and unluckily the officer is Kyung-Jin. The first half of this movie is about the meeting, falling in love with each other and when Myungwoo informing Kyung-Jin that if he were to die, he wanted to come back as a wind (the soul of the title). Then, Myungwoo almost got himself killed in a freak accident when their jeep veered off the cliff, but was quickly saved by Kyung-Jin.
Then, the second half of the movie tells how Kyung-Jin pursue a ruthless cop-killer from downtown club to a vacant manufacturing plant. During that time, Myungwoo overheard that Kyung-Jin is pursuing a criminal and rushes over to help her. However unexpected things turn out for the worse and will forever change both their lives.
Review:
To me, this is the best romantic comedy from Korea. I have never cried so much watching this movie over and over again. The acting from both leads are superb with the ever Jun Ji-Hyun giving her best performance in this movie while Jang Hyuk plays an innocent but loveable Myungwoo. Both clicks and the on-screen chemistry are extremely good. The movie has a good start, a good middle and a great ending. The whole story is extremely well told - we have laughter, a little romance, sadness, high motivation, action, forgiveness and finally a second chance. The whole movie was assisted by the greatness of the movie soundtrack make the whole movie perfect. As this is a very old movie, it is still one of my favorite movie of all time. Director Kwak Jae-yong has hit the jackpot with this movie.

Verdict:

A perfect 5 star out of 5. Any movie director should take some reference of this movie to make a good movie.  

Neighbour (US) - Homerun (4 times) on Pathetic Movie Viewing

Neighbour (US)

Synopsis:
It's a simple story of a serial killer girl who likes to invade people's home, tortured and killed all the people residing the house while living inside their house until she finds another new home and repeated the offense again. This time, the movie centers around the serial killer girl (no name given) targeting the home of Don Carpenter. He is drugged (but didn't show how) and tied to a chair in the basement and then started to receiving various torture from the serial killer girl (i think i better named her SKG). Then, his drinking buddy started to come over and was attacked by the girl. He manage to rescue Don by pouring acid to SKG face, scarring & disfiguring her right hand side face. Then, we are shown that Don is actually dreaming of the event and that the frightful episode is over, with Don now walking on a stick and keep having vision of SKG killing his friends, sister, and finally haunted by getting tortured again. Then, we are re-introduce again to the scene where his drinking buddy started to come over Don's house again and instead of rescuing him, his buddy was attacked and then set on fire by SKG. Then, SKG proceed to kill off every people that visited Don and lastly Don's girlfriend. Then, SKG innocently walked out from Don's house and met up with Don's sister, and telling her that Don and his friends are drinking and smoking in the basement. Finally, SKG proceed to walk off (rather skipping off) happily.
Review:
The beginning of the movie is quite promising with SKG killing the house host and his family. Then, as she target Don, it was not so bad. But then, Don get drugged and capture without showing how. One minute he is with his wife, the next drugged and tied to the chair. That is the beginning of my nightmare. Christian Campbell as Don is pathetic as a torture victim. When SKG proceed to hammer away his toes, he does not scream in pain, rather just show a bit pain. When SKG proceed to drill on his torso (few places), he does not scream in pain, rather just give a bit grunt here and there. When SKG proceed to stuck long plastic needle to his crouch, he also give a bit grunt. I mean Come' On! Didn't he watch at least some SAW movies to show how people acted painfully when get tortured? Its so unbelievable crap of acting from this guy. And the lead actress SKG (played by America Olivo) is so laughable as a serial killer. She wanted to act as though she is insane but all we saw is, she comes of as a bitchy bully. I really do not know where these actors and actresses came from or if they have any acting lesson, because this is really bad (though not as bad as Apocalypse of the Dead) Somehow i do not know why the even release such a film. Awful.

Verdict:

I give it a 1 star out of 5. Bad acting and Bad torture clips. Enough said.   

Revenge: A Love Story (HK) - Unpredictable, Gory, Good Entry

Synopsis: 
The movie is divided into few segments which are all related. 1st segment shows that a killer are killing 2  pregnant woman and taking out their still-born child, murdering a cop with some innovative. The killer's identity  is instantly shown in this 1st segment leading up to his arrest. Then, the killer's pregnant wife tries to save him by diverting the police attention by stabbing herself and taking out her own unborn baby. But what is the motive behind such grisly killing ? 2nd segment shows then shows the courtship between the killer, Kit and her sweetheart, Wing who is taken care by her grandmother. After her grandmother died, Wing is send to an orphanage home but sneaks out one night to be with Kit. During that time, she encounter a cop, Du Ge who thought that she was a prostitute and tries to rape her. However, Kit manage to save her in time by beating the cop unconscious. Both then decided to make a police report at the station but unfortunately, Du Ge is the police boss in the station and together with his fellow cops, decided to take revenge on Kit by severely beating him and falsely accusing him of assaulting a police officer, thus sentence to 7 months jail. Wing is then raped in the station by Du Ge and 2 other cops. After coming out from prison, the now pregnant Wing lives together with Kit while Kit plotted revenge on the cops for her misfortune. The next segment of the movie focus again on when Kit has been caught & interrogate for the murders earlier. Due to Wing intervention, Kit is released from police custody and tries to rescue Wing from the hospital. During the escape, the interrogation officers inform their ex-boss, Du Ge and hatch a plan to sabotage Kit and kill him. Du Ge manage to shoot Kit and injured Wing in the legs. The last segment of the movie shows after many years passed, Du Ge became a pastor, repent on his previous misdeed & currently a principal in an all-boys orphan school in a remote island. After recovering from injury, Kit manage to track down Du Ge and killed him, and himself get killed by the orphans for taking revenge for their principal.   
Review:
Initially i was not interested in this movie due to its movie cover and not so interesting title cover. After reading some article on this, i manage to find a copy of this movie and watch it. I was hooked from the beginning due to its tight screenplay and straight to the point storyline. The music and the overall look of the film is expensive and giving an impression of a big budget movie. The murder is also realistic and gory too, so some of the scenes are not for the faint of heart. But a majority of the film is on a darker theme with revenge feeling playing around the movie. According to the director, the reason for the film is to make viewers understand that revenge is not good. But after watching this movie, i do not feel that the message has been delivered thoroughly. In fact, i felt that it prompt people to take revenge ala an eye for an eye.Overall, it was a good entry from upcoming actor, Juno Mak and HK movies.

Verdict: 

I give this movie a 3 star out of 5. 







   

Basement (UK) - A place where this movie should be heading

 

Basement (UK)
Synopsis:
Its about a movie where 5 friends (Gary, Sarah, Saffron, Pru and Derek) on the way home from an anti-war demonstration. They stop in the woods for toilet break and a little naughty action but stumble upon a metal hatch connected to the sewer and decided to explore it. However, once inside the sewer, the were trapped when the metal hatch suddenly closed upon them and one by one, the 5 friends are systematically killed by unknown person / persons.
Review: 
After a hopeless night of viewing the dreadful Apocalypse of the Dead & Pulse 3 back-to-back, i was hoping that my luck would at least chance for the better by viewing this DVD i bought called "Basement". Few friends alone remotely in the forest, chance upon a basement and being killed one-by-one. How bad can this movie be ... it has all the right formula, girls, guys, alone, killers, eerie basement or sewer. No matter how bad the movie is, with the right formula it should be a watchable movie,right? Unlucky me for the third time. This movie is so bad that it really is laughable. Location: The sewer is so bright that it doesn't have any sense of eerie.  Acting: There is no plot, so storyline and dialog is boring and repetitive. Action: Laughable killer (s) and what's with the ninja suite. It seems that either the budget is very low or the director do not have any premise to make it more interesting other than to run in one location, talk and then get attack and then run again, and the whole cycle just repeat again and again with no sense of reasoning. I would not recommend even if its thrown in a discount bin. Totally waste of time, money and energy.

Verdict:

No surprise here. A 1 star out of 5.

Contagion (US) - Realistic but lacking Punch!!

Contagion (US)
Synopsis:
This movie is about a story of how a virus becomes an outbreak with patient 1: Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) falling sick after arriving home from a business trip in Hong Kong. Her husband, Mitch Emhoff played by Matt Damon takes her to the hospital but she succumb to the illness. Also at the same time, his stepson develop similar symptom and also succumb to the illness. The illness has been verified as a virus after the autopsy and government agency, the CDC (Center of Disease Control) headed by Dr.Ellis Cheever (played by Laurence Fishburne) has been notified to contain the spread of the disease while finding the cause of the epidermic. When more and more people around the world is infected with the virus and died: London, Hong Kong, Japan, US, the CDC needs to rush out with an anti-virus vaccine to cure this new virus while keep people under control.
Review:
I have high anticipation of this movie after knowing the story plot of this movie. Also as this is not consider as a big blockbuster movie, there are only limited releases in selected cinema. Somehow i manage to squeeze my way through and watch it last week. With a big cast of actors and actresses, i was hoping that this will turn out to be a good movie. So, after watching the movie ... i was rather disappointed with the outcome of the movie. Please do not be misunderstood, as it was a good movie but it wasn't a great movie. The story telling is very realistic with minimal color and sound to create such mood. The action taken by the CDC, the containment and the aftermath is also realistically done. So, why this movie isn't a great movie then? To me....it is too monotonous .. there is no up and down, there is no sense of urgency, there is no heart-pounding sequence scene or music even. It was too quiet and i guess many viewer (young audience especially) felt somewhat less satisfying with the outcome of the movie. With such interesting and wide casts, i think director Steven Soderbergh should try to up some tempo every now and then to make it more engaging.

Verdict:

I give it a 3.5 star out of 5. A noteworthy movie but lacking the punch needed to make it a great movie.

Pulse 3 (US) - A Promising 5 mins Start, Then Next Stop to Rubbishland

Pulse 3 (US)
Synopsis: 
The story sets in the present time when the undead from the spirit world makes into our world via telecommunication systems & TV, as in Pulse 1. It goes to shows that a tech savvy single guy named Adam uses real-time TV-webcam to communicate with her girlfriend from Cairo, Salwa. However, during one night when the spirit attack, Salwa was seen heading to the top of the building and plunge to death while telecast
live to Adam. Then, we are shown 7 years later, where all humans has fled the cities and out of touch from technologies that bring the dead to life. Then the focus is on a teenage girl called Justine who dreams of life out from the refugee camp and toward the city. When she discover a laptop that is working and communicate with a person online (Adam), who urge her to leave the camp and to the city to meet him, she decided to run-away. Along the journey, she met with many individuals such as a man who offer her place to stay but ended wanted the laptop for himself in order to bring his wife back, or another guy who manage to capture a spirit and in meeting Adam herself with dreaded consequences.  
 Review:
The plot sound nice and interesting. In fact, the beginning few minutes are truly engaging between Adam and Salwa before and during the attack. It has all the promise of a good horror movie, heck it sounds like a good sequel to the original Pulse. I was waiting for the rest of the movie to thrill me but alas! it didn't really come. In fact, it became worse and the storyline somehow spiral neither here nor there. It is as though the movie has been sucked in to the spirit world by the phantom of the movie itself. There is practically no sense of logic in-between takes like when Justine was taken prisoner by the man offering her shelter. One minute the guy was preaching her about the danger of technology, the next minute he was stealing to use the technology via laptop. Confused? There are many plot holes and the whole story does not gel well. The actress portraying Justine, Britanny Finamore is weak and unable to provide the necessary frustration of a teenager without technology, or the fear factor when encountered the spirit. In short, there is nothing worth in this movie to think of.

Verdict:

I give this a 1 star out of 5. At least its a bit better than the horrible Apocalypse of the Dead.  

Apocalypse of the Dead (Serbia-US) - Rubbish

Apocalypse of the Dead 
This movie also known as Zone of the Dead is about an outbreak in the city of Pancevo, where the people in the small town are all infected after an ecological explosion at the train station carrying some bio-chemical contents. During the same time, a police-team lead by 2 Interpol agents, Mortimer Reyes and Mina Milius were escorted a prisoner and chance about the outbreak and chaos. The agents are then forced to join forces and band together with the dangerous prisoner to force their way out from the zombies hordes. 
Review:
This is the 1st of the many movies i have watched over the long weekend (another 3 more to be reviewed later) and it is a movie with the Poor Lighting & Editing, weakest dialog, weakest acting and gosh! it really does look like a C-Grade movie. Perhaps the movie is banking on a well known actor to carry it, Ken Foree who has acted is some Living Dead movies but it failed miserably. Why? 1) The movie style seems like its a cheap European make movie - perhaps because the director are both Serbian, so understandable but please don't make it look damn cheap. 2) Acting is so horrible that you will think that the actors are just some passer-by that the directors picked up from the streets. When i saw an actor portraying as the president speaking slow word-by-word of his dialog, i was going like "OMG! is that guy going to be zombie and speaking some zombie-speaking language that none of us understand or Is this guy having some kind of a bio hazard disease that hinge his language, but no ...that's real acting of a president. So i told myself, perhaps with all the weak dialog and acting, maybe the zombies & action will do a better job since this is after all a zombie movie. But alas, 3) The Action is so unrealistic that it almost seems so laughable. Image a semi-auto discharging endless bullets and worse, the same semi-auto is then passed to another person and again, discharging countless buffets upon hordes of zombies. Some of the zombies are okay but most of the zombies make-up are just cheap make-up with darker eyeshadow and mascara. I am an avid fan of the Living Dead movies, thus the reason why i purchase the movie to watch it but what a waste of time, waste of money and above all, waste of a good entertainment. I might as well pop-in the Zack Snyder Dawn of the Dead (2004). Now, that's an example of how to make a good old zombie movie.    

Verdict:

I give this movie a 1 star out of 5. Totally unwatchable and to be avoided. 

Space Battleship Yamato (Jap) - Nice Soundtrack. End.

Space Battleship Yamato (Jap)
Synopsis:
It is year 2199, some five years after the start of an alien species, Gamilas attack on Earth. Earth has been reduced by the aliens' radiation bombing and the remnants of humanity have fled underground. One day, former pilot Susumu Kodai discovers a capsule sent from the planet Iskandar that tells of a device that can remove the radiation from the Earth's surface. The United Nations of Space Administration then rebuilds battleship Yamato, with a new type of propulsion system - the wave motion engine to warp from one location to another, and a special weapon to deter Gamilas . This enables it to make the long trip to Iskandar and back in hopes of saving the Earth. Within 73 days the radiation will drive the rest of humanity to extinction. So the Battleship Yamato lead by rouge-fighter, Susumo Kodai who finally takes over the captain role must face-off with the Gamilas fleet surrounding planet Iskandar and race against time to save the Earth. 

Review:
After making a long disappearance from screen, Takuya Kimura emerge with an epic si-fi movie from Japan. I would say that its a good entry from Japan with its grand scale special effects but the movie fall shorts on the editing, acting and emotion factor. Also, there are many screaming from Takuya throughout the movie, giving a fall sense of overacting. The storyline is quite good with many surprises, suspense, sense of patriotism, love and etc. but it was not fully utilize and explored in the movie. One example is the sudden change of hatred feeling between Susumo Kodai (Takuya) and the Captain, the love story between Susumo & Yuki also falls flat where viewers are unable to feel the love between both. These are one of the many other examples inside the movies that fails due to this aspect. Also, the spaceship does looks a bit fake and it reminds me of a bit like i'm watching Ultraman movie. However, the movie does have its good moments like the battle wits between Yamato & Gamilas and also the outstanding soundtrack score by Steven Tyle's Love Lives.

Verdict:

I give it a 2.5 star out of 5

Falling Skies ( US TV Series) - Nice Title, Nice Premise but ZZZZZZZ!!!

Falling Skies (US TV Series)
Synopsis:
This drama is about the aftermath of an alien attack towards earth with military, soldiers lost, vanished and electrical appliances all incapacitated. After 6 months of invasion, survivors stage militia attack on the aliens which consists of various type: Skeeter and Machina while also trying to survive with little food. Inside the story is a sub-story of main lead character, Tom Mason (played by Noah Wyle) , a history professor together with their 2 sons: Hal and Matt trying to cope with their new life while also trying to save his other son: Ben, currently captured by the aliens and placed under their control via creature-device mounted behind their spine and brain.
Review:
The reason i bought this series was the fact that it has an interesting title: Falling Skies, interesting plot: Alien Invasion on our World, interesting characters: Noah Wyle from ER, Will Patton, also the fact that they stressed on its being Steven Spielberg production. What else could go wrong. Everything i suppose. Firstly, we were never shown how the alien invaded our world, just some kid narrating with his drawing. Then, we are drop in the middle of the fight (it gives me almost the same deja vu as Terminator Salvation). But i do not mind the fire-power, action ala combat drama if its interesting as Saving Private Ryan. But this was no Saving this series. To me, the whole production looks cheesy and doesn't have the expensive looking drama look like the awesome Spartacus: Blood & Sands. It was also less engaging like the superb 24, Prison Break or even Nikita. The action was ok but i think the sound department, the picture quality needs to be improve. Also there are no engaging story in this drama and in fact, i felt that the first episode and the second episode begins almost the same. We are drop in the middle of the war -- same modus operandi, same action, same all things. In fact, i couldn't be bothered half-way though the series although i'm trying my best not to. In short, i can't wait to just finish off the series and get it over with. At least it is not as horrible as the new "V" series. That said, another alien invasion series going to the garbage dump for me. 
Verdict: 
I give it a 1 star out of 5 star. This is not no Independence Day IE4.

Sacrifice (China) - A very good storyline but the Ooomph Didn't Come

Sacrifice (China)
Synopsis:
This is an historical epic set in China's tumultuous Spring and Autumn Period (770 – 476 B.C.). It is set in the Kingdom of Jin where Zhao clan has won favor in the court of Duke Ling much to General Tu Anqi's displeasure. To add insult to injury, the young Zhao Shuo has returned from war a hero and is expecting a child with Ling's beautiful sister Zhangji where, Tu is jealous because of the love he lost and subsequent setting hi sight to the throne. Tu then plans an assassination on the Duke and frames the Zhao family into mass execution by slaughters all 300 remaining members of the Zhao clan for the killing of Duke. In a bid to save her unborn son, the pregnant Zhangji implores her doctor, Cheng Ying, to induce an early birth and adopt him. Cheng manage to hid her son aka future to the throne and reluctantly swap with her own newly born son to confuse Tu. However, due to some off timing, his son was killed together with his wife at the hand of Tu. Chen decided to take revenge by meticulous plan to making Zhao's son, Cheng Bo and Tu having son-father relationship hoping that one day Cheng Bo will kill Tu after discovering that it was Tu who killed his parents.
Review: 
I am not really keen on watching China costume epic movie but Red Cliff by John Woo really make me stand up and root for the battle scene and its war strategy. Hence, i decided to give this movie a chance since its famed director is Chen Kaige. The first half of the movie is truly engrossing with the wicked General Tu played by the brilliant Wang Xueqi (who also plays a brilliant villain in the Reign of Assassins) plotting and executing the members of Zhao. The color usage for the costumes are beautiful and sharp, where many China costume movie excels. However the main actor, Cheng Yin portray by Ge You unfortunately falls blend with less expression and didn't inject the much needed emotion aspect of the film to anchor such a theme. The second half of the movie falls short and the ending left much to desired.  
Verdict:
I give this a 3 star out of 5

Attack The Block (UK) - Furball Aliens with Flourescent Jaws, Witty Jokes, UK Good Entry

Attack the Block (UK)
Synopsis:
A group of teen gangs from South London chance upon an alien invasion while mugging a victim, Sam of her valuable on the street. What started as a discover of new species becomes a life & death situation when hordes of aliens landed around their neighborhood and tearing (or rather eating) everything that crosses their path. The teen gangs lead by Moses makes their final stand inside their building apartments where they reside together with their reluctant victim against the aliens making their way up floor-by-floor eating & chewing up everything and anyone that crosses their path.
Review:
I manage to watch this movie yesterday night after bought it during the weekend. I was full of anticipation after reading of many positive reviews on this movie and the fact that i didn't manage to catch this movie in the cinema couple of months back due to limited screening at our area. So, i waited patiently for the movie release on disc. And i was not wrong to bank in on this movie. This is a UK production but the pace, action and jokes are consistence throughout the movie. There was not a single moment of boredom and due to many colorful characters inside this movie, there was plenty of interesting things happening from the moment go. I particularly like the crazy, derange pot-producing, Hi-Hatz proclaim of leader of their block. Some of the dialog is heavy on the UK accent but i felt that it is acceptable to the viewers and their 1 line jokes are extremely amusing. Now the aliens part, beginning it felt like a cheapo special effect and rubber suit but boy was i wrong. The black fur-ball aliens are one nasty creature and you can jump out of your seats in one too many scenes with split-second action. The monster effect, sound effect, music to the movies and the pace are good. It will not be the most memorable movie but it definitely does justice to the 1.5 hours time spent on the couch. A feel good movie in the end.
Verdict:
I gave this a 3.8 star out of 5 due to its good 1 line punch jokes, good special-effect & great acting skills by all the teen actors.

Ladda Land (Thai) - This is one scary mama

Ladda Land (Thai)
Synopsis:
The story involve a family of four moved from the city, Bangkok and live in a high-class suburban of gated community. The family has also their internal personal problem where the father is struggling to provide his wife and children a better life as his mother-in-law constantly nag and complaints of his incompetence to provide better life for them. Also, their eldest daughter having living most of her time with her grandmother, blames his father for sending her there since she was a child and also to move away from Bangkok and settle in this remote place. After awhile of living there, the gated community is shocked with a sudden murder of a young maid inside one of the bungalows. The young maid was killed and stuffed inside the refrigerator for days before being found by the police. After the murder, strange things start to happen around the gated community where the ghost of the maid roams around.
Review:
This was suppose to be a true story of a haunted gated community in Ladda Land in Chiang Mai. However, after look up in the internet, there is a place called Ladda Land and instead of a community housing area, it is actually a big garden but was deserted a long time ago where people sometimes heard some eerie sounds. So, actually there is no revelation to the movie whatsoever apart from the name of the movie.When i first watch it in the cinema, i didn't have much expectation except for some cheap old school shock with lame storyline. After watching numerous Thai horror movies with the exceptions of the best horror movie Shutter , 4bia & its sequel, there isn't any other movie worth mentioning. However, to my surprise this is one horror movie not to be missed as the running time is a little over the 2 hours mark due to its character development and the scare is genuinely scary. I could almost feel my hair standing in the back of my neck in some of the scene. It is not a straight forward movie but it was wrapped out nicely with good story line and amazing scare tactics. The director is a genius in using lighting and sound effect to make viewers felt the chill especially when we are in a big dark cinema with cold air-condition blowing down towards us. I would say that this film is on same par with Shutter although shutter really won ahead by marginal points on the scary make-up but Ladda Land is way up my list of an all time horror movie.
Verdict:
I give this movie a 4.5 star out of 5 due to its original idea, good story flow, great scary moments - many of them and good wrap up of the movie with great acting.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Sweden) - Good & Edgy

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Synopsis: 

The story is about a journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, for Swedish political magazine Millennium, who lost a libel case involving allegations about billionaire industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström and is sentenced to three months in prison. However, as the 3 months sentence will only commenced in 6 months time due to legal procedure & appealing, he is offered a freelance job assignment by Henrik Vanger, former CEO of Vanger Corp. At the same time, Henrik Vanger also assign a PI, Lisbeth Salander to investigate into Blomkvist's personal and professional history. Hendrik enticed Blomkvist in by promising not only financial reward for the assignment, but also solid evidence against Wennerström. Blomkvist agrees to investigate the case of the disappearance of Vanger's niece Harriet some 40 years earlier which Vanger believes that Harriet was murdered by a member of the Vanger family. Meanwhile, Salander meets her new legal guardian, Nils Bjurman due to the old guardian had a stroke. Nils uses his position to extort sexual favors from her in return for access to the money from her own financial accounts. After two sexual assaults, Salander attacks Bjurman; she tattoos him and blackmails him with the release of a video of him raping her in return for full control of her bank accounts. Salander also found to be interested in Blomkvist due to his clean nature and decided to give hints to him via email and finally he persuades her to assist him with research. Together, they discover entries in Harriet's diary that list the names of missing women from across Sweden; this leads them to suspect that they are on the trail of a serial killer, who has been at large for decades.
Review:

I had kept this copy for months as there were many movies to be watched and somehow didn't find it worth the time yet to watch until one lazy afternoon and nothing else to watch. So i decided to give this movie a chance and boy was i right. From the get go, the movie just glued you in with its good crime investigation story and also focus on both character's feeling and emotion. It is an easy to watch movie with some nice plot and good story. However, the main Swedish character, Blomkvist is quite weak and not much expression.. Face is almost like HK star " Lo Ka Leung" but fat version. But be warned as there are many nudity involved such as lesbian scene, bondage, and etc. and is for mature viewers only but it is necessary for the flow of the story.
Verdict:

Overall, i give this movie a 3 star out of 5.  

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (US) - Ape Movie Gone APE!!

Synopsis:
During experiments to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease, scientist captured apes for experiment on the drugs and a genetically-enhanced chimpanzee suddenly increases in its intelligence due to the drugs. The ape named Caesar discover that apes were treated like animals and experiment objects and find ways to its own freedom and lead other apes to freedom using the same drugs for the fellow apes.
Comment:
I have long anticipated for this movie after watching the trailers and teaser months earlier and i was not disappointed at all. Although the movie run time was a mere 1 hour 45 minutes, but it was enough to show all there is to show about this movie, no frills and no sub-story like love story in between. In fact, the movie pace is good and the brilliant CGI animation of Caesar the ape was likeable in the beginning and intimidating when demanding his own freedom and its fellow apes. However, the performance of its lead actor, James Franco is just average as with the rest of the actors. I felt that James Franco needs to inject more emotion bond between his character and Caesar. I would say, there is not much chemistry between both. However, all is forgiven as the movie is after all about apes and it is strongly lead by Caesar and its other CGI apes. The action peaks in the final 30 minutes when the apes takes over the city and while many viewers wanted more action, i think it did enough to whet the appetite of viewers to longing for its sequel (if there is one). Overall, i think it did a splendid job given the budget of the movie. It was by far the best summer movie of 2011.
Verdict:

I would give it a 4 star out of 5.

My Kingdom (Da Wu Sheng) (Taiwan) - Wow Beginning , Crap in the End

I just watch the movie, My Kingdom (Da Wu Sheng) last week and all i can say is, how can a movie so full of great ideas and good beginning with best drama actors in Taiwan today have a disappointing outcome in the end.
Synopsis:
The movie started off with 2 orphans Yi Long (Wu Chun) & Er-Kui (Han Gen) of different background learning chinese opera  under a strict, dedicate and strong principle Master Yu (veteran, Yuen Biao) in the early 1920s. Their master has earned the famed "Greatest Opera Performer" from the Manchu Emperor after his performance in front of the emperor. However, during a night of celebration, another opera Master, Yue (Yu Rongguang) from Shanghai came for a duel and won due to intervention by Yi Long. After the lost, Master Yu has to break his spear & ended his career as an opera performer. During his years, he continue to teach Yi Long & Er-Kui all his martial arts trade. Secretly, both orphans promise to take revenge on behalf of their master after diligently learn up their master skills. Upon graduating, both went on quest for revenge and successfully defeated Master Yue during a duel in Shanghai. Yi Long replace Master Yue as main opera performer while Er-Kui ended up falling in-love with Master Yue's apprentice via lover, Mulan (played by Barbie Hsu). However, Er-Kui has decided to ventured off to Peking to assassinate the royal's children to revenge his own family death by the royal's father.
Review
The first 30mins of the movie was great, full of colors, suspense, great acting skills by veteran Yuen Biao and Yu Rongguang, great battle and the highlight of the battle involve both Yi Long & Er-Kui against Master Yue. The action is breathtaking (choreograph by Sammo Hung) with fast spear actions, drum against the backdrop and plenty of drama on stage. However, that are all the exciting parts there is to the movie. The remaining 1 hour plus is absolutely full of weak plot, weak dialog and mostly weak editing. For instance, there is no mentioning of master Yu death, just some verbal dialog with Yu Long crying. Then, the next scene showing Mulan shows affection to Yi Long and then suddenly showing interest to Er-Kui. It is extremely confusing with scenes suddenly cut-off and a new scene emerge. The worst case would be to endure the acting of both Wu Chun and Han Gen. While both tried pretty hard to be loving brothers, but there was no emotion and love lost between both. Even made worse is the chemistry between both Mulan and Er-Kui, there is none. In the end, the film started with a wow but ended with a boo with most viewers coming out shaking their head and laughing off such ridicule plot.
Verdict:
I give this a 1 star out of 5 (only because of the fight scene)