Sector 7 (Korea) - Horrible, Just Horrible Movie

Sector 7
Synopsis:
The Korean movie started with a group of people discover some strange underwater glowing creature while undergone an underwater expedition of Jeju Island. Then, the movie panned forward to The Eclipse, an offshore drilling oil rig stated at Sector 7. The oil drilling excavations end in failure and headquarters gives the order to withdraw. Captain Jeong-man is sent to oversee the crews withdrawal from the Eclipse. However, Hae-jun, the equipment manager (played by Ha Ji-Won), is adamantly opposed to the headquarters order, as she is certain that oil will be discovered in Sector 7. Motivated by Hae-juns conviction of finding oil, the Captain suggests conducting one last drilling exercise. While Hae-jun and the crew are fully engaged in their final attempt, they lose communication with headquarters when a storm hits their rig but just before their doc assistant apparently fall to her death. As the bodies begin disappearing one by one, they finally discover that a mutant monster is the cause of the killing and also found the origin of the mutant monster is because of human experiment to re-engineered a species that is able to produce oil as alternative to petroleum.
Review:
One of the best and only Korean monster movie i saw was "The Host". It was a good movie with mix blend of comedy, family and finally the monster. The CGI was quite realistic and scary too. So, i was quite positive about this supposedly 3D monster movie from Korea. Positive comment - The color captured of the movie is extremely beautiful and detailed, almost looks like Avatar for a second there. Negative comment - Too much to listed all but i will try my best. 1. Horrible Script- There seems to be no real depth story and the actors kept dishing out senseless and boring dialogues during the whole movie. It is so annoying. 2. Horrible Action - The action is laughable and illogical. During one particular scene, the monster was about to attack/eat an injured crew but somehow miraculously, they are able to save the injured crew inches from the monster jaws and make a run for it , before the monster realize it. Is the monster blind and dumb? I do not really care or bothered. Another scene, the crews are armed with guns and harpoon but when the monster was about to attack some of the crew, they miraculously didn't fire a single shot. 3. Horrible Acting - I have not seen such terrible acting in a Korean movie before. I saw many good Korean movies with credible acting but in this movie, it is terrible. The only okay acting is from the lead actress in Ha Ji-Won but even she couldn't save the whole movie from going down the drain. The male actors are horrible and they serve as only monster dish. Imagine that for the whole movie, a girl help save all-male-oil-riggers from the monster. 4. Horrible CGI - Blue-Screen-Type CGI was used in many years back and during the '80s it was ok and looking realistic but coming to the millennium, blue-screen CGI looks pretty low budget and it is even worse when the viewers are able to detect it in a second. Most of the movie action, explosion and the bike-action scene was done using blue-screen CGI and it stood up like a sore thumb. It looks so cheap and   
Verdict:
1 star out of 5. Weak and Horrible Movie

Paranormal Activity 3 (US) - Too Short, No Bang In the End

Paranormal Activity 3
Synopsis:
This movie was set in 1988 which is about 18 years prior to the events of the first two films - Paranormal Activity 1 and Paranormal Activity 2. It is about Katie (Chloe Csengery) and Kristi (Jessica Tyler Brown) who is living with their mother, Julie (Lauren Bittner) and boyfriend, Dennis (Christopher Nicholas Smith). The event started to unfold when Kristi begins befriending an invisible friend named Toby and strange things started to occur. Dennis, who is a wedding cameraman decided to use his skills to installed 2 cameras, one in their bedroom and another in their children's bedroom during the night. Night after night, the recording shows the invisible entity started to get more and more aggressive , with their family friend Randy and then with their babysitter but Katie doesn't believe that the house is haunted until she witness the strange event herself when all during one afternoon, all her pans, pots, kitchen utensils levitate and then smash on the floor right in front of her eyes. Then, she decided to bring her children, Katie and Kristi to their grandmother house. However, the strange presence continue to haunt them at their grandmother house when Dennis discover Julie and the children missing during the same night at 1am. Armed with a camera in his hand, Dennis discover that Julie's grandmother, Lois is involved in some kind of a demonic ritual and quickly rushes to get their children and Julie. However, the invisible entity grab Julie and throw her off the stairs and then Dennis was killed when the entity snapped his spine upon Lois called upon the entity to do her evil bit.
Review:
I love the first Paranormal Activity even though it was a bit boring at times when too many talking, too little suspense but once the suspense hit the button, it was truly terrifying. Paranormal Activity 2 was a so-so movie amid there are more strange occurrence happening and we get to see more action this time. But, i didn't really feel the fear and suspense as i do in Part 1. I hear all the hype about Part 3 and how it was very good, so i decided to watch it in the theater myself. I admit that the movie pace is quite good and the editing is excellent. There is not much time wasted with pointless babbling like in Part 1 and the suspense build-up is good and better than Part 2. In fact, i was really waiting for the suspense to overwhelm me in the final 3rd of the movie till the end but i kept waiting. In fact, i keep on waiting and waiting for the WoW! in my face to happen but it didn't. And worse, it suddenly and abruptly ended with the ending credits quickly came out. I was saying to myself WTF! Many audiences in the theater also felt the same and felt cheated too. In fact, i clocked the screening time to be less than 1.5 hours. In fact, i felt that it was a little over an hour mark. The talking was about 30~40 minutes before some actual suspense started. And it was over before we knew it. There is no mentioned about why the entity started to follow them from Part 1, Part 2 and now Part 3. There is no mentioned why grandmother Lois sacrifice her daughter, Julie for her grandchildren. So, due to these untold story still untold, there leave many gaps unanswered and thus, disappointing. It could have been a great movie had they invested more time into making a 2 hour movie but in the end, it seems that this movie will be a milking cow franchise movie with the latest rumor that another sequel is currently being planned.

Verdict:

2 star over 5
 

Phase 7 (Argentina) - Low Budget but Not Bad

Phase 7
Synopsis: 
The movie started with a couple - Coco and Pipi who is pregnant, returning from a grocery store after buying daily essential goods. Along the way, they saw many people started panic buying but they didn't realize what is going on. After arriving at their apartment, they saw their creepy neighbor, Horatio with his army-truck in the car basement, presuming readying for something. Didn't suspect anything amiss, they proceed to stay inside their apartment and watch TV that broadcast some news event on a virus epidermic in many countries. All of a sudden, their apartment has been quarantine by the health ministry and the residents - Coco, Horatio, Zanutto, Lange and Guglierini has been told to stay indoor until they check each residents for any contamination due to one of the residents has been ill. After days or weeks indoor, Coco make friends with Horatio who has been prepared with plenty supplies of essential goods, weapons and masks. There, they discover that Lange and Guglierini wanted to force their way inside Zanutto apartment because they suspects that he has been ill. However, in a turn of event, Zanutto turns on them by firing and killing Lange and Guglierini. There on, Zanutto proceed to kill any residents that he has encountered. Coco and Horatio then proceed to find Zanutto to stop him from his senseless killing. After encountering Zanutto at the car park, they exchange gunfire and Zanutto was killed in a knife fight with Horatio. However, Horatio was injured in his arm before both of them proceed outside from their apartment for the first time. After Horatio knew that he has been contaminated, he ask Coco to kill him and take his daughter and proceed to a target area where there is no contamination but the latter is unable to do that. Horatio then went on a berserk and attack Coco in hoping that he will retaliate and kill him. But during the chaos, a Chinese resident shot Horatio and killed him to protect Coco. Lastly, the Chinese family together with Coco, Pipi and Horatio daughter proceed to take Horatio car and go to the destination that he pointed out. 
Review: 
The movie premise is very simple. Most of the movie has been shot inside the apartment and also just outside their apartment but still inside the building. However, the director, Nicholas Goldbart is able to create some creepiness to the movie especially among the neighbors, when supplies are scarce and suspicions began to creep in. I particular like the movie background, where they used loud suspense piano play to create the feeling of suspense. The whole movie is a little slow pace but it creates enough tension to make you sit right through the movie. There are some funny moments with some quirky one liner between Horatio and Coco and the killings are short but brutal when Zanutto goes berserk. Although this is a low budget movie with some feeling of low budget, but it is a decent movie to watch. Though not as spectacular as the Spanish's REC but it is interesting in its own way.

Verdict:

I give this a 2.5 star over 5.


 

Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginning (US) - So Weak, So Lame, Just Wrong

Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginning
Synopsis:
The movie started with a new nurse being shown around to her new workplace at a mental institution aka sanatorium headed by Dr.Ryan. Dr.Ryan also warned the nurse that the most deadliest and dangerous patients inside are the trio hillbillies - Three Fingers, One Eyed and Saw Tooth. During their hospital tour, the 3 hillbillies managed to escape and kill every staff including the new nurse who had been electrocuted and Dr.Ryan being decapitated. Many years later (around 30 years), the movie zooms in on a group of friends - 3 guys, 6 girls who decided to go snowmobiling and took a wrong turn after a snow storm hits on them. So, they decided to seek shelter in an abandoned sanatorium. They decided to do some exploration and to move out the next day. However during the night, one of the guys - Vincent (Sean Skene) decided to do some exploration and was killed by the hillbillies. No one suspects anything until in the morning when they discover Vincent missing and decided to split into 2 groups to search for him. They also discover that their backpacks are missing but thought that it might be Vincent's prank. When one of them saw the body of Vincent being chopped by one of the mutant, they decided to run for it and during the chaos, one of the girl was killed. When they reached to their snowmobile, the discover that the mutants has took away their spark plugs, thus hinder their escape. One of the girls, decided to called for help by skiing down the slopes and into the storm

while the rest of the groups find a safe place to wait until help arrive. However, the hillbillies managed to kidnapped Daniel (Dean Armstrong) and proceed to fillet his skin one-by one, fry it before eating it. The group of friends headed by Kenia (Jeniffer Pudavick)  & Kyle (Victor Zinck,Jr) decided to rescue him but while squabbling, Daniel was killed when the hillbillies cut out his liver alive. Then, the groups decided to chase after the hillbillies and trapped them in a cell. While Kyle wanted to kill the hillbillies by burning them alive, Kenia decided against it and ask Kyle to be a watchdog on the trio while they search for the spark plug to their snowmobile. While keeping an eye, Kyle dozed off and the hillbillies managed to unlocked their cell and kidnapped Kyle. They proceed to cut off his tongue and tied his head with a gunny bag before making him run to the rest of the group. But the group thought that Kyle was one of the hillbillies and proceed to kill him before identifying him. The group then proceed to escape the sanatorium through a hole but one of the girl was killed. So the remaining girls - Kenia, Sara and Bridget managed to escape outside but was pursue by the hillbillies in their own snowmobiles. Bridget was killed but Kenia and Sara managed to escape. However, their escape was short lived when both are decapitated by a barbwire fenced around the sanatorium. The earlier girl who was suppose to find help was frozen to death by the snow storm. The heads of both Kenia and Sara was collected by Three Fingers and then drove away in a pick-up truck.
Review:
I love Wrong Turn 1. It was by far the best movie among the other series. I watch Wrong Turn 2, 3 and subsequently 4. All are craps with weak storyline and unimaginative killing. It seems that the other directors are unable to emulate the success of original director, Rob Schmidt. The latest offering: Bloody Beginning was also bad but at least it is a little bit better than part 3. It started ok but then it goes downhill with many illogical action such as when the hillbillies was captured, Kenia decided to go against killing them even when few of their friends was killed and eaten alive. If i was one of the friends, i will kick her inside in the cell and ask if
she still wanted to preach about humankind thingy. Another illogical action is when Daniel was screaming for help, the whole group was in discussion and voting whether to rescue or not to rescue him. The acting was quite weak and the whole movie is just forgettable.  

Verdict:

I give this 1 star out of 5.

Horrible Bosses (US) - Funny Flick

Horrible Bosses 
Synopsis: 
The movie started of with 3 friends - Nick, Dale and Kurt working in 3 individual workplace. Nick Hendricks (Jason Bateman) hates his boss, mostly because he's expected to work from before sunrise to after sunset and his boss, Mr. Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey), calls him out for being 2 minutes late and blackmails him so he can't quit. Also, his boss bypass his promotion to Senior VP position and absorb the position himself, making Nick furious. Dale Arbus (Charlie Day) hates his boss, Dr. Julia Harris (Jeniffer Aniston) , because she makes many unwelcome sexual advances especially when he is already engaged. But Dale is unable to quit his job because he has been listed as child offenders for peeing in the children's playground at night time. Kurt Buckman (Jason Sudeikis) actually likes his job and his boss but hates his boss's son Bobby Pellit (Colin Farrel). When his boss dies of an heart attack, Bobby takes over the job and makes Kurt's life miserable by asking him to terminate his dad's employees especially on fat people and disable people. During the moment of depress and a night's out, Nick, Dale and Kurt jokingly discuss on killing their bosses, and before they know it, they've hired a murder consultant, MF Jones to help them pull off the three deeds.
Review:
The movie has its hilarious moments with some great one-line-jokes and good wacky acting. I think that the bosses has their moments especially Jennifer Aniston who has done a great acting portraying as a sex-addict dentist. I especially like the murder consultant, MF Jones played by Jamie Foxx. There are some interesting discussion between the 3 fellow and MF Jones that will make you laugh. The comedy level are quite good and also funny, so do not take this movie seriously when watching it and you will have fun watching it. Overall, this movie is an average comedy movie.

Verdict:

I give this movie a 2.5 star over 5 mainly for Jeniffer Aniston acting.

The Thing (US-Norway) - A Scary Predictable Alien Movie

The Thing
Synopsis:
The movie started with a bunch of Norwegian scientist discovered a spacecraft buried beneath the ice in the antarctic in the year 1982. The scientist group lead by Dr.Sander Halvorson recruited Kate Llyod, a US paleontologist to assist him and other Norwegian scientists team to analyze the spacecraft. Also during that time, they discover a frozen alien corpse and decided to bring it back to their base camp for more research. They managed to obtained a tissue cell from the alien corpse for analysis and during their celebration of the discovery, the alien corpse came alive and escaped. The scientists splits up into groups to search for the alien and Olav (Jan Gunnar Roise) and Hendrik (Jo Adrian Haavind) discover the alien hiding under their base camp building. The alien manage to grab Hendrik and devour him while Olav calls for help. Unable to rescue Hendrik, they decided to kill the creature by burning it. Dr.Sanders decided to autopsy the alien that devours Henrik. During the autopsy, Kate and Adam discover that the alien somehow absorbs the cell of Henrik. During the day, pilot Sam Carter, co-pilot Derek (Adewale), Griggs (Paul Braunstein) and Olav decided to leave the base with the helicopter due to injuries to Olav. During take off, Kate discover a bloody pool of blood inside the toilet and some metal teeth fillings and suspects that something might be wrong. When she flagged the copter, Sam decided to land the copter to find out the reason. However, Griggs suddenly transform into the creature and kills Olav while the helicopter crashed in the mountain.Kate assemble all the remaining scientists and explains that based on her theory on the nature of the alien, it is capable of imitating any life form but it cannot imitate inorganic material such as metal, hence why it spit out the tooth fillings. Most of the team members do not believe her but soon some section believe her after their members has been killed one-by-one by the alien.  
Review:
This movie is a prequel of John Carpenter's The Thing which was released in 1982 that showcase how the alien came and kills all the Norwegian scientists. There was some rave reviews on the movie and i decide to check it out myself but i was not quite content with the end result. The movie started off nicely but then, it somehow slowly becomes like any other creature-alien movie. To me, there is no real scary moments and although the alien does look scary with the attachment of the human body, but that's about as interesting as there is to this movie. It slowly becomes a typical Hollywood monster movie even though it was directed by Norwegian director, Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. I guess i expected something more from this movie where its predecessor has done so well during the 1980s. It was indeed a scary movie back then when The Thing was screened when i was a small kid back then. The movie is quite predictable with the normal element of scare and others.

Verdict:

I give this a 2.5 star over 5 only. Average and popcorn flick movie 

 

Trespass (US) - Should give a pass on this movie

Trespass
Synopsis:
The movie started with Kyle Miller (Nicholas Cage) who is a diamond dealer businessman who just move in to a new house in a suburban high class residential area with his wife, Sarah Miller (Nicole Kidman) and daughter, Avery Miller (Liana Liberato). During one night, Avery sneaks out from her house to join her friend for a house party and during that same night, 4 intruders / robbers breaks-in and hold Kyle and Sarah hostage. The robbers headed by Elias (Ben Mendelsohn), Jonah (Cam Gigandet) Elias' brother who has strong interested in Sarah after doing surveillance, Ty (Dash Mihok), a loose cannon and Petal (Jordana Spiro), lover to Elias and a drug addict. Their motive is searching for diamonds that they thought Kyle was keeping inside their safe but when Kyle told them that there are no diamonds, the robbers didn't believe it until they found nothing inside the safe. In the mean time, Avery decided to sneak back home after finding the party is full of rich kids who is interested in party, drugs, sex. However, she was caught by the robbers immediately after reaching back. The robbers then decided to search for cash since diamond is now not an option but still unable to locate the cash. Kyle told them that they are already broke and all the money are used for mortgage for the house and this upsets Ty who decided to finish them off. However, Avery averted Ty action by informing that there are cash - (S$100,000) at a rich-kid house where she sneaks out to party and she is able to get it for them. Petal was asked to escort Avery and but Avery manage escape by crashing her car into a tree and subsequently kill Petal in the process. While at the house, Ty and Jonah keeps on arguing and during on one occasion, Ty was killed by Elias while getting into a fight with Jonah and subsequently, Elias was killed by the now deranged Jonah who wanted Sarah for himself. However, in the end Jonah himself was burnt to death after Kyle set fire to him upon discovering plenty of cash stacked in the basement of their house.  
Review:
Firstly, i cannot help but compare this movie with another Spanish-made "Kidnapped" by Miguel Angel Vivas. That is one excellent and well crafted kidnapped movie with the same premise as this movie, Trespass. I decided to watch it because it has 2 of the best actors - Nicholas Cage and Nicole Kidman but boy was i wrong. The movie directed by Joel Schumacher who is famous for excellent thriller movie such as Phone Booth, Blood Creek failed to create any sense of suspense in this movie. In fact, 80% of the movie is the squabbling between the robbers and the hostages to the point of annoying. Imagine this , Cut Scene 1: Firstly the robber wanted to rob diamonds, so they make threat of killing the hostages and failed in their threat, argue with the hostages, argue with themselves, find no diamond. Cut Scene 2: The robber wanted to rob cash instead, so they make threat of killing the hostages and failed in their threat, argue with the hostages, argue with themselves, find no cash. Cut Scene 3: The robber wanted to rob other people cash instead, so they make threat of killing the hostages and failed in their threat, argue with the hostages, argue with themselves, fight with each other, fight with hostages, killed. End of movie. So, there you have it, there is no real plot, no real suspense and no real threat. In fact, if i were the hostages, i will gladly be waiting until the robbers started killing each other without me lifting a finger. Unlike the Spanish-made, Kidnapped by Miguel Angel Vivas,you can feel the forced home invasion and the intelligence and violent of the robbers. Will review that movie in awhile but for now, this movie should be given a pass.

Verdict:

A poor 1 star over 5.

Real Steel - The Real Deal Robo-Rocky

Synopsis: 
The movie started in a near future, whereby robot boxing is replacing traditional human boxing due to injuries where human is unable to received punishment unlike robot. The story then zero in on a robot promoter cum ex-boxer, Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) who keeps getting new robots to challenge in a bull ring, underground battle, zoo parks and etc. but the dream is to bring his robot boxer to the Professional League, WRB - World Robot Boxing. During this time, he also discover that he has full custody of his 11-year old son, Max Kenton (Dakota Goyo) from his ex-girlfriend who passed away. However, Charlie manage to get into an agreement with his ex-girlfriend sister, Debra (Hope Davis) wealthy husband, Marvin to take Max away as legal guardian only if he is paid $100,000. But the condition is Charlie will have to take care of Max for 2 months before sending him over to them. So, during the 2 months, both father & son manage to find some common ground and interest in robot boxing with Max finding an old sparring boxer robot in a metal junkyard and eventually named Atom. After clean-up and recharge the power, Atom became the best underdog boxer robot who eventually won his fights in the underground battle and was given a shot to the WRB title against the undefeated Zeus.
Review:
After reading so many positive review on this movie, i decided to find out for myself but i was extremely excited especially after seeing the trailer some time ago. The movie run time is slightly over 2 hours but the movie was not dragging nor boring. In fact, the movie has everything - funny moments especially on the first robot battle against a bull, the neat father-son relation between Jackman and Goyo. I especially think that Dakota Goyo is the best actor in the movie where he manage to portray the stubbornness of his dad, pitiful, arrogance, and caring with relative ease. He and the robot, Atom carried the movie very well compared to other veteran actors like Jackman and other. But as a whole package, the movie is a little like Rocky where the underdog became the people's champion and i for one, rooted Atom all the way to the finals. This is one movie that you should not miss for this year. I believe that director, Shawn Levy finally hit the jackpot with this movie because it has all the quality of a great movie - the family drama, the father-son relationship, and the pure robot action with great hip-hop music soundtrack.    

Verdict:

I give this movie a 4 star out of 5. It still lack of some ingredient to be the best boxing movie ever. I still rate Rocky the best but this is my second best boxing movie.

 

Gantz 1 & 2 (Jap) - A Wickedly Good Manga Adaptation Movie

Gantz
Synopsis: 
The movie started off with 2 teenagers, Masaru Kato (Kenichi Matsuyama of Death Note) and Kei Kurono (Kazunari Niyomiya) who were once best friend involving in a rescue of a man who had fallen off the train tracks. However, after saving the man both are killed and transported to a room with a huge black orb called as Gantz. Inside the black orb is a bald man in comatose form with an oxygen mask together with other people whom has also been killed in accidents. The black orb lays out the rules and regulation where currently everyone is assign a back exo-skeleton suits and weapons from the side of the black orb compartment. Everyone needs to suit up and weapon ready in 3 minutes time (i think) and then will be transported to earth with a mission to kill aliens. The alien biography with their strength & looks will be shown to the people before they are transported to earth. During the first outing, many of the people do not know that there is weapons and suit to be wore which provide them the advantage during their battle with the aliens, so some were killed. Those who are killed will be deleted off permanently from the game & their photo placed in the obituary like screen in the black orb. The people who defeated the alien will be designated some marks and upon reaching 100 marks, they will be given 2 option: (1) To resurrect their own self and memory wipe off from this event or (2) To resurrect other people who are killed. After they select the option, the marks will be reset back to zero.After defeating alien, all the people are allowed to regain back their normal life momentary until Gantz decided to called them back when there is an alien that they need to battle. During one alien battle, Masaru Kato was killed and Kei Kurono who found a way to use the suit to full advantage & a new found confident swear to reach the 100 marks to resurrect Kato back to life.
Gantz 2: Perfect Answer
Synopsis: 
The first movie left off with Kurano wanted to achieve 100 marks to resurrect Kato back to life. The start off 5 months after the first movie, with a model, Eriko Ayukawa (Ayumi Ito) who goes about in a hypnotic trance to help Gantz through a small black orb who provides information on who should be killed and went about killing selected individuals so that they are transported back to the Gantz world to battle alien. Also shown is a Kei Kurono relationship with Tae (Yuriko Yoshitaka) who is currently taking care of Kato's younger brother Ayumu (Kensuke Chisaka). During a battle in the subway with 5 shape shifting aliens whose power exceed beyond other alien encounters, Kurono team managed to defeat them but those killed by Eriko discovered that they were once in Gantz world who exceed 100 marks and choose option 1. When Eriko is killed by a shape shifter alien of Kato and appear in the Gantz world, Kurono decided to resurrect Kato so that both can defeat the shape shifter alien who wanted to gain entree into Gantz world. However, Gantz commands that the team kill Tae instead so that the shape shifter is unable to gain entree to the Gantz world but was objected by Kurono. So, Kurono rescue Tae and together with Kato have to fight against the Gantz team as well as the shape shifter who is also after Tae.   
Review:

I saw the 1st part of the movie months ago but only managed to get a copy of the 2nd part last week and viewed it last night. In a nutshell, i would say that the 1st part and 2nd part are 2 totally different movie type, almost like Kill Bill Vol.1 and Vol.2. Although both are still connected to each other but the theme are set differently and the outcome is nonetheless good . Lets move on to the first part of the movie, I wasn't having any expectation of this movie other than thinking that it should be a low budget Japanese movie with costume and aliens aka Ultra-man type movie that i saw countless times. However, i was glued to the TV about 15 minutes into the movie and once the people are in the Gantz world, its action all the way with countless of alien boss battle - towering alien murderer, metal robotic alien, 4 face goddess with swords and huge buddha like status. It was almost like I'm watching a video game movie with all the over the top battles but it sure is entertaining. When i watch the 2nd part of the movie, all the alien boss battle are totally wipe off the screen and instead the pace moves slower and introduce more characters and only one single alien - the shape shifter with an army of shape shifters. There are only 2 battles in the movie, one is the subway battle and the second is the finale battle. To me, the subway battle is the best among both series because of its excellent sword play and machine gun with pure brutality and a good soundtrack to boost the action sequences. I have never saw such a good sword play in any other Japanese movie, so i give this a good thumbs up for this battle. However, for the 2nd battle, i say it pales in comparison and its a bit dull especially with Kato moving around. Overall, this movie will not be remembered in years to come but for a rush of adrenaline and moment of pure action entertainment, this movie excel well.

Verdict:

I give this a 3.5 star over 5, an above average pop-corn flick action movie. 

Fading of the Cries (US) - Suffering of Lousy Movie, I Cry for Help

Fading of the Cries

Synopsis: 
The movie started with Sarah (Hallee Hirsh) moving in with her sister, Jill (Mackenzie Rosman) and mom, Maggie (Elaine Hendrix). However, during one night out with her friend, she witness her whole farm town is attacked by hordes of zombie like demonic creatures.Jill and Maggie managed to escape the attack by holding up inside their house while Jill was saved by a young man named Jacob (Jordan Matthews) who has a sword that could protect them. Soon, the movie reveals that an evil wizard named Mathias (Brad Dourif) is searching for an ancient necklace that he claimed was stolen from Sarah's uncle, Michael (Thomas Ian Nicholas). So, the movie keep panning back and forth from how Micheal firstly learn black magic to the unleash of Mathias, and then back again to Jacob saving Sarah by keep on running through the streets, fields, churches and tunnels to escape the zombie like hordes. During that moment, both also reveals their own secret past in order to defeat the demons. 
Review: 
The movie started nicely with Sarah and the whole town being attacked by the creatures - actually not really creatures but is human with their eye areas painted black and some wore white make-up powder. It was quite interesting with the background suspense soundtrack. But then, after Jacob came saving the princess in distress, all went downhill. I think it took about 5 minutes after the movie start. It shows that Jacob running along with Sarah along the road, town, field, tunnels, churches and then breaks awhile while taking a rest, then repeat again the running and finale is running to the field. I felt exhausted after watching them running again and again and again. I guess the movie has not much script to go about, so what do they do -- yes, you are right. Running. The supporting cast was incidentally much better than the lead cast. Maggie played by Elaine Hendrix was so much better than the poorly acting of Hallee Hirsh playing Sarah and Jordan Matthews as Jacob combined. How in the world did director, Brian Metcalf find such poor actors to play lead cast. As usual, Brad Dourif is always over-acting in his character, so nothing much we can do to improve the situation of the movie. The movie has potential to be a decent and okay movie with its cinematography, special effects and sound department, but instead, the movie will turn to made-for-TV type due to its poor script, poor screenplay and above all poor acting.

Verdict:

A 1 star out of 5. Kick out the lead actors.

The Smurfs (US) - Boring & Strictly for Kids

 The Smurfs
Synopsis
The movie started with a magical world where tiny blue creature, 3 apples high Smurfs lives happily and harmony in a village. They are protected through a layer of force-field that prevents the evil wizard, Gargamel and his cat, Azrael from capturing them and extracting them for his magic power. When Gargamel accidentally found out about the village, the Smurfs escape to the forest. However Papa Smurf, Clumsy, Gutsy, Smurfette, Brainy, Grouch and Greedy get suck into a portal together with Gargamel and Azrael and came out in the middle of Central Park, New York. The Smurfs unexpectedly bump into the home of Patrick Winslow and beg for his help to get them back home while Gargamel still in pursuit to make magic potion out of them.    
Review:
I like the Smurfs cartoon way back during my childhood time and as i grew older, the interest disappear altogether with the TV program. Then, i saw the preview trailer of the Smurfs and it looks beautiful with the 3D form and some funny moments. But after popping the movie to my DVD set yesterday, i was engrossed. Engrossed on my tablet because the movie somehow does not have any sensible storyline. It merely were created to shows the Smurfs and the Smurfs are cute but once they open their mouth, they were so boring and didn't sound cute. In face, all of them sounded so adult like and that is a turn off. I felt the voice casting is bad and they should make some cute voices for the Smurfs. The only commendable Smurf is Clumsy while the rest are more of a nuisance. The CGI is also not as good as previous "cartoon combine real person" type movie and the flaws can be seen when the human character physically interact with the Smurfs. Neil Patrick Harris is wasted as Patrick Winslow while Hank Azaria as Gargamel excel exactly as in the cartoon. But as mentioned, in the cartoon, this character plays very well but that doesn't happen in the real world & real life. The movie director should incorporate real life character and not dishing out 100% from the cartoon unless they wanted this to be a 100% cartoon movie for kids and not to worldwide viewers. Overall, a poor movie with weak plots and silliness overboard.

Verdict:

I give this a 1.5 star out of 5.  

Fright Night (US) - A Decent Movie To Sink Your Teeth In

Fright Night
Synopsis:
This movie is a remake of a 1985 movie of the same time and story. It involves a teenager named Charley Brewster ( Anton Yelchin) who suspects that his new neighbor Jerry Dandrige ( Collin Farrell) is a vampire in a new suburb housing area in Las Vegas . This was after his childhood friend went missing but just before indulging that Jerry is a vampire responsible in a string of recent missing people and deaths. Charley became more suspicious when Jerry started acting all bizarre and always find opportunity to be invited into his house (a vampire cannot enter his victim house unless being invited). However when Charley saw his neighbor, Doris being attacked/bitten by Jerry in a middle of the night, he went over to Jerry house to saves her but it was too late. When no one he knows believes him, he tries to enlists Peter Vincent (David Tennant)'s help, a Las Vegas magician who is also a vampire killer but was turned away because Vincent thinks that Charley was a crazy-obsessive fan. Vincent soon change his mind when he saw a photo of a symbol that Charley captured in Jerry's house and helps take Jerry down. 
Review:
I had high hopes going into the movies during the weekend due to the positive rave reviews posted. And after the movie, i was so not disappointed. The movie running time is about 1.5 hours but somehow it sure feels long. It wasn't that great of a movie as stated by people but it was quite a decent horror - vampire movie. The first 30 minutes of the movie was great, it was really suspenseful and tense moment when Charley was trying to help escape his neighbor, Doris inside Jerry' house. The background soundtrack is also excellent in creating the suspense mood and i was nearly jumping on the edge in that scene. However, when Jerry went overboard and on the path of destruction when he discover that Charley knew his identity, the movie began to go downhill on suspense, predictable plot and more into action comedy. The movie somehow goes into fast-forward pace and there is no continuity between one scene and another. I felt that 1.5 hours movie is not enough and need at least another 15 to 20 minutes to tied up loose ends and build up more suspense. In acting department, Anton Yelchin as Charley Brewster has done an okay job as a teenager outgrowing his geek years. He will be the one of the uprising young actor to watch in future as this actor has unpolished potential. David Tennant as Peter Vincent really lights up the moods in the comedy area whenever he is on screen as the coward liquor drinking vampire hunter. However, the star of the movie would goes to Collin Farrell who excel as the suave, handsome yet intimidating vampire head, Jerry. Although is present on-screen is quite limited especially in the first half of the movie, but he has let his presence felt and viewers are anticipating his every step. 

Verdict:

I give this movie a 3.5 star out of 5. It could have been better given enough screen time.