Pacific Rim - Robot Action Mayhem but Weak Plot

Movie Title:
Pacific Rim
Strong Point: 
1. Plenty of non-stop action from the start till finish at approx. 2 hours - Not much of breather. 
2. Robot versus monster action aplenty -- slug fest of the gigantic proportion, best view it on biggest screen
Weak Point:
1. Plot is weak, storyline is weak and dialogue is quite horrible too. Luckily the acting was saved by Idris Elba's strong performance. I think the weakest is Japanese actress Rinko Kikuchi whom is unable to show her emotions when she needed to and also she doesn't look cute which i think that was what the movie was suppose to be. Big action, a little cuteness in between and massive fights - ala anime style. I was rather surprise that the plot is quite predictable and the the dialogue was also weak. I always knew that director, Guillermo del Toro is a man of visionary especially on exotic designs, cinematography but this is quite a disappointment.
2. The action while extremely good, was a bit too much with rather repetitive kind of action movement. It was just a bashing of each other mostly. I would rather that some strategy was implemented by the Jaegers (robots) against the kaiju (monsters) which is much cooler. The monsters were a great fun to watch and at least there was some tactical attacking against the Jaegers especially on the bay of Hong Kong where 2 kaiju pitted against 4 Jaegers.
3. Most of the battles was in the dark, raining sea -- so its quite hard to see some of the fast action on-screen as the battle was fast and furious. I think some slow-mo would have been great and i would love to see battle done during the mid-day for some realistic damage carnage. In fact i can't really see most of the monsters.
4. Music was quite horrendous at times especially when there was some kind of a patriotic type music akin reminds me of Starship Trooper type. 
Verdict:
I give it a 4 star despite all the weak points. Do see it at least once for the monster vs robot action. It was a rather fast non-stop action movie that i do intend to see it at least one more time. 

World War Z: Utterly Rubbish Zombie Movie

Movie Title:
World War Z
Strong Point:
Pace was ok, beginning was ok. Action was breathtaking especially in Jerusalem
Weak Point:
Aplenty. Incoherent plot and some does not make sense. Didn't state why Brat Pitt as UN Lead Investigator suddenly drop out from UN, why he is suddenly called up again and why he is suddenly the important person in finding the cure although not a  scientist and etc. Brat Pitt performance here is a waste and i as a viewer felt that he didn't put much performance into it. It is one of the weakest acting from him yet.
The action was chaotic especially in the beginning of the movie. The past paced and held-cam type action was a headache as we do not know who is chasing what and who is screaming. Since it is a large scale zombie attack, the cam should have been panned out and let us see the full destruction. Even if it happens, it only happens for a short period.
If we were to compare the gore in The Walking Dead with World War Z, it will be like The Walking Dead = High School level while World War Z = Pre-shool level. There is no blood at all in World War Z nor any decapitation shown on screen. At least a bit of gore must be shown to depict the violence and horror of the virus epidemic but these were not shown at all. Disappointing at all.
To see or not to see:
Better rent a video once available. No point in buying movie tickets

Man of Steel : Too much = Not better

Movie: 
Man of Steele
Strong Point: 
Good start to the Superman franchise. A good 10~15 mins of great action sequence at the beginning of the movie showing planet Krypton. So don't miss coming in late. A good fighting scenes of Superman against Faora and another massive huge guy. It's like OK Coral in a western gun fight. Great & destructive CGI sequence of fighting scenes similar to comic book tunes.
Weak Point: 
Too many flashback .. Once in a while is good but too many is extremely irritating. Henry Cavill is great as Superman but he doesn't show much expression in the face and it is almost like he is a robot or something. I would like to see more of Kevin Costner and Clark Kent relationship with their adoptive parents but it wasn't shown. The plot and storyline is rather weak and some scenes are just plain nonsense like why the Army with massive weapons afraid of a broadcast signal by Zod? The CGI fighting is a bit too much. Almost like you feel that this is the beginning and end of a Superman franchise. The 1st genuine fight with Faora is spectacular but the fight with Zod is extremely disappointing and too much smashing and crashing inside building that it almost made people feel a id bored.
To See or Not to see:
See it only once for the CGI fight sequence. Not so watchable on second time round.

Fast & Furios 6: Keep the Engine Revving

I will comment most of the movies from now onwards in more structured and point based so that people might not think this article as too long-winded and based on the review - either a must see or down the toilet bowl. So lets start with the 1st real summer blockbuster movie:
Movie: 
Fast & Furious 6 aka Fast 6
Weak Point: 
Less street racing across the town, change tune to cop-robber car chase. Less heavy R&B music to kick start the racing momentum. The so-called bad guys equivalent to Fast 6 group are weak despite beginning of strong showing. Too many outrageous CGI stunts involve and now car jumping out of burning plane??
Strong Point: 
Good movie plot to link Fast & Furious 3: Tokyo Drift till Fast 6. Kudos to director Justin Lin. Great to change plot from illegal car racing to fugitive evading to busting international terrorist. That is why this movie franchise is still burning hot and hotter on each sequels. I'm waiting for the next Fast 7 featuring an all new and exciting bad guy in Jason Statham. So, please stay back during the credits roll to see his introduction. Chris Evans is just okay in this movie as baddie but i think Jason Statham has more charismatic features.
Great girl fight cat fight scenes too. 
To see or not to see:
A must see movie. Go see if you have not seen.

Olympus Has Fallen - Best Action Flick to start Year 2013

Review:
Olympus Has Fallen. This movie is just under my radar few weeks before it was shown in my local theaters. I guess one of the reason why i didn't manage to pick up this excellent movie is because of its ehm...rather mundane title. It somehow makes the wow factor just disappear and i almost pass it up due to its B-Grade Movie Title Name. However after looking at the impressive cast of Gerald Butler, Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman and the synopsis of a White House being taken hostage, it might just not be a bad movie after all. And to further strengthen my will to go watch this show is its director, Antoine Fuqua whom has a very impressive resume of movies directed under his belt  - Training Day Tears in The Sun, Replacement Killers, King Arthur, Shooter, Brooklyn Finest - movies that i watch again and again. So lets get down to business
The story is very simple to follow. It revolves around a Secret Service Agent, Mike Banning whom headed a security head protecting the President of US, Benjamin Asher ( Aaron Eckhart) and his family. However after a fatal accident, President Benjamin decided to relocate Mike to a desk job at the US Treasury Department because having Mike around will remind the President on that incident. The movie then panned to 18 months later, where the President of South Korea decided to visit White House to have some discussion involving North Korea situation. During the discussion, an impressive assault by Korean terrorist against the White House left President Benjamin and his staffs held hostage by the Korean terrorist leader, Kang (Rick Yune). Thus, it is up to Mike Banning to save the day.
Simple story, right? So,
Question #1 - Is this a good action movie? 
Answer - This is one of the great action movie i have seen in many years. I truly enjoy the whole 2 hours duration of the film. The terrorist assault takes a good13mins and boy, when it hits the White House, it is a scene to be reckons with unlike the dull Red Dawn. The film also does not pause and during the assault on the White House, the Pentagon scene is also one truly tense moment with the ever reliable Morgan Freeman as acting President taking charge - much like when he was during Deep Impact.
This movie also has so many body counts - i think more than Rambo V and the violence is up a notch which is fine to me as it makes it more believable. 
Verdict:
I give it a 4 star out of 5 for an action packed movie. Now over to GI Joe: Retaliation to make similar impact 

Mama - Oh! Mama! Boring Half-Bake Horror Movie

Review:
The fact that this film was executive produced by Guillermo del Toro, we need to be really cautious especially after the disappointing horror film in "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark". The trailer was quite nice but the actual film didn't. It's a simple story of how 2 girls stay hidden and isolated from the world in a cabin for 5 years with a supernatural ghostly creature called "Mama'. After being discovered, the girls was brought to stay with their uncle and her rocker girlfriend. However, soon strange things started to occur and it seems that "Mama" wanted to be with the girls. Premise seems good, originality story seems okay but one big flaw in this movie is - the supernatural ghostly figure is shown too fast too soon in the movie. And the worst thing is it looks a little cartoon rather than real, somehow the CGI is so bad that the fear factor is gone the moment Mama was reveal. The story is also half-bake and seems illogical too. For example, the psychologist Dr. Dreyfuss found some discovery of who "Mama" was and decided to go to the old cabin "Alone" and in the middle of the night to see her presence. For goodness sake, it is insane to go there alone, and he goes there in the middle of the night. There goes one meat for the creature. Then, we have the creature hiding in the closet and keep attacking people like the girl's uncle- Lucas, and the funny thing is Lucas didn't reveal these details of the cops or even her girl friend. A simple waste of time watching this movie.
Verdict:
Only 1 star out of 5. Poor

Year 2013 - Many Movies of Anticipation

Although we are about 3 months into year 2013, this is the first time i have written for year 2013. I am rather excited that this year, 2013 has many hotly anticipated movies that i am looking forward to see - as much as i could either on the theaters, cinemas, DVDs, or web based. Some of the movies that i cannot wait for the countdown are in the genre as follows:

Horror

The Evil Dead - Remake of Sam Raimi's horror masterpiece. I am absolutely looking forward to this horror movie that is currently buzzing in the internet world as the scariest horror movie ever made. It is about 4 young peoples that made a trip to an isolated cabin in a forest, where they stumble upon a Book of Death and accidentally summon a demon.
Carrie - This is also another remake that i would love to watch too. It is a remake of Brian De'Plama masterpiece. Although i didn't manage to catch the original film, i am looking forward to this film where an introvert Carrie White is subject to bullying and unknown to others, she has developed a telekinetic powers that used to take revenge on those who has wronged her.

Action
GI Joe: Retaliation - I am absolutely looking forward to this screening of GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra sequel. The first movie was a very good action movie and after viewing the trailers, i don't think the standard and quality has decrease. In fact with the introduction of Dwane Johnson "The Rock" and Bruce Willis, this is one of the good popcorn fare movie that i would love to see.
Pacific Rim - A Guillermo del Toro movie that is monstrous that it had to be seen to be awe. It is about monsters - giant monsters and giant robots battling each other in the near future. Let the slug fest began.
Fast and Furious 6 - Somehow this franchise manage to pull in crowds after crowds, parts after parts with their endless action, super fast car, hot ladies, hottest hip-hop and the star attraction of Vin Diesel and Dwane Johnson "The Rock". Somehow the director & producer of the film manage to keep the story fresh with good twist and nice action. I love to see what will this latest film offers next.

Superheroes  
 Ironman 3 - I guess one of the hottest anticipated marvel film would be this especially after the recent success of The Avengers. The trailer offer a more darker film with the latest villain in Mandarin. It is dubbed as the best Ironman series ever and i think it is good enough for me to wheat my appetite and see what will be the continuation of the Avengers.
Man of Steele - This movie is what i will be looking forward to in the Superhero genre. Yeah! We will have Ironman3 and Thor 2 but i have high hopes on this movie. There had been too many failures of getting the best out of Superman and i really hope it will be the best Superhero movie of all time. Words is that this is the movie to beat in 2013.

Si-Fi
Star Trek - Into Darkeness - Although not as excited as other film, i still find this film to be something to look forward to. I am not a real Trekker fan but i gave it a go on the 1st film by JJ Abrams and it certainly didn't disappoint me at all. So, i will be keeping my eyes on this.
Elysium - After the best movie with minimal budget in District 9 - I am really looking forward to this film by Neil Blomkamp. Somehow with Neil at helm and Matt Damon starred, it can only get better. Not much information has been reveal much.
World War Z - This is also one of the movie i really am looking forward to. Not because it starred Brat Pitt but i just love zombies film and with hordes of zombies moving in lighting blaze consuming all of humanity, this is one movie i really wouldn't want to miss.

  

V/H/S - Found Footage that is anything but scary

Review:
I notice that there are a lot of buzz in the past few months in the internet on how scary this movie is and that it is one of the scariest found footage in recent times. This movie is an anthology whereby few short movies by different directors are combined into a single movie. There are a total of 6 short movies - Tape 56, Amateur Night, Second Honeymoon, Tuesday the 17th, The Sick Thing that Happen to Emily when she was Younger, 10/31/98. Tape 56 serves as the spinal & connectivity to the other movies and let me review all the movies. The 1st - Tape 56 has quite good setting and story but the camera panning is crazy - much like Cloverfield. Prepare your barf bag especially the beginning of movie as it was shaking like nobody business. The story involve 4 men who does nothing but vandalize properties and molestation, and their new activity is breaking into a house to steal a V/H/S tape required by a client who pay big amount of $$$ for it. While there, they discover a dead guy slouch on a sofa in front of a TV. So, each of the guys play the tapes that is inside the recorder and hence, beginning of the 1st movie - Amateur Night and ends with 10/31/98. During the course, strange things starts happening and one by one, the men disappeared and lastly we had a zombie. For me, this was a short movie and when the suspense crept in, it hastily ended.
To me, Amateur Night is the sub-movie in this movie. It has enough gore, enough sex and enough suspense. It is nicely build from start to the end. The camera movement was good and stable, enough to make you feel that you are inside this movie. It is a story of 3 guys partying and bringing home 2 girls for fun. However, it turns out that one of the girl isn't really human at all and all 3 suffer deathly consequences.
After the good Amateur Night, i was in for a continuous good movie to come along but the subsequent movie - Second Honeymoon was bad. There wasn't any element of suspense, scary nor anything. In fact the dialogue was pretty lame and bad. For most of the movie, you will see 1 couple going on a 2nd honeymoon where they talk & climbing some rocks, and sleep. During sleeping, some stalker came in and steal something and just when you thought there is going to be some scary stuff - there wasn't any. Luckily it ended pretty fast with a stabbing. Dreaded and dragging movie. Tuesday the 17th looks great for a setting for slasher movie but it ended pretty dull with 4 friends going off the grid to a place where some previous murder takes place. The killer return to haunts them. Boring stuff. Could it get any worse ??? In fact yes. We were then presented with The Sick Thing that Happen to Emily when she was Younger. This one really kills the whole movie. It was great seeing some Skype-type camera much like Paranormal Activity 4. However, there are no explanation on why some sinister people wanted to harvest something from Emily. The question was left hanging and we the viewers get confuse. Luckily the final movie, 10/31/98 ended quite nicely there with again 4 guys intended to go on a Halloween party but stumble upon a ritual and some paranormal event. As much as i would like to support how good this V/H/S movie is, it just isn't good enough. It was clearly a disappointment after the viewing of this movie. Not enough scare element nor fear instill upon us, viewers and that is what i paid for.
Verdict: 
I give this a 2 out of 5

Skyfall (007) - All the Hype, Destined to Fall

Review:
There were great heap of praises before the movie was releases: I read about tons of reviews on how this latest James Bond movie is the greatest movie in the James Bond franchise, the action scenes are the best there is for an action movie flick and etc. After reading it and also reviewing the trailer, i was all pump up to watch this movie. The trailer shows pretty much about what this latest flick is about - an evil mastermind has personal vendetta against M (Judi Dench) and stated blowing up James Bond's headquarter, MI6 as well as revealing the names of MI6 agents across the world. We are also shown how James Bond (Daniel Craig) has lost his mojo (after a failed mission) and started to pick himself up by going after this evil mastermind, who is reveal as Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem), an ex-MI6 agent. It sounded and looks interesting and the trailer does show a good storyline, great action and a great baddie plus a pretty good reviews from all over the news. So, there i was .... sitting in the theater anticipating what would be the best James Bond i have ever seen. After nearly 2 hours, i couldn't wait to just bolted out from the cinema. Why? The storyline was just so-so, an ex-agent going rogue and taking down his organization. The movie doesn't really have much side story apart from this main agenda. Then, it started to drag and drag and drag. After an hour mark, i started to have a backache. I though that i would be save from the action scenes but how i was so disappointed. The whole action is about 20~30% of the movie and it wasn't that good at all. These action scenes are just your normal Hollywood flick and its kinda boring. I think "Salt" action scenes are much more better and breathtaking. The editing are horrendous as it cut one scenes to another without the continuation and to me, that is really bad. For example, Bond was shot and fell into a deep ravine. Then, another scene shows him having a nice fun time with a girl. I mean, WTF? At least tell us how Bond was rescued and etc. It was never shown. Fortunately, the whole movie was saved by Javier Bardem's Silva. His first encountered with Bond is is the most memorable scene where both Silva and Bond traded sarcastic jabs with each other. But unfortunately he isn't the most bad baddies there is. In fact, i don't really felt that he is evil and the impact wasn't really there on why MI6 is so threaten by him. Such is the case for the whole movie. It is a forgettable movie after you have come out from the exit door. I personally felt that Casino Royale was Craig's best James Bond movie hands down.

Verdict:

I give this a poor 2 star out of 5.

Sinister - Twisted, Brilliant Sinister Story

Review:
The movie began in a very dark, bizarre way - showing a family of 4 being hanged from a tree behind their house. Somehow, it sets a serious sinister tone to the movie and boy was i in for a ride. The movie is quite well paced and the weirdness/scary/twisted started quite soon without dragging. It is about a writer, Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) who wanted to write a new book based on a murder in the house they they just moved in. Ellison deliberately bought the house in order to investigate further into the mystery of the murder and the disappearance of their youngest daughter. He stumble upon a box of old project and Super 8 films up in the attic and began to play the movies. The film depicted the murder of the family, as well as other families too and this make Ellison worked out and strangely after watching the film one by one, he began to experience some strange incidents at night. The story seems simple yet it isn't so straight forward and we as audience need to see the Super 8 film to get us thinking on what will happen next and what will happen to the movie character. Thus, it is truly engaging that we the viewers are eagerly anticipating what is going to happen every time Ellison pops another Super 8 tapes and view it. The whole movie is based solely on the individual performance of Ethan Hawke whom did brilliantly as Ellison Oswalt, a has-been famous writer who is trying to gain fame again but slowly drive to insanity and off the edge due to strange event and the brutality of the murder viewed from the film. Overall, this movie is an above average movie which i consider as similar par with Insidious with excellent music and the Super 8 projected sound, you will not hear it the same way again.

Verdict:

I give this a 4.5 star out of 5. Good storyline and best performance by Ethan Hawke. Scary -- not so much,
twisted -- yea, will you remember this film after it ended -- definitely yes

Taken 2 - Fast Pace Action without Emotional Touch

Review:
"Taken 2" is an anticipated sequel to the 2008 surprise hit movie "Taken" that propel Liam Neeson to become an action superstar ala Jason Bourne did to Matt Damon. I watch "Taken" on DVD even before there was any review whatsoever and lets just say, I was blown-away by the action, plot, emotion portray by Brian Mills (brilliantly played by Liam Neeson) as a concern father looking for his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace) who was kidnapped and sold in human flesh trade by a syndicate. In Taken 2, Brian Mills reunites with her daughter, Kim and ex-wife, Lenore (Famke Janssen) and they were on a holiday trip in Istanbul after Mills last assignment. However, the syndicate that Mills exterminated in the first movie, vows revenge and in the form of Murad Hoxha  (Rade Serbedzija) whom Mills killed his son too. So, in this sequel, Mills and Lenore get kidnapped instead but Mills escape and started to exterminate each of the group en-route in saving Lenore. So the question is, did Taken 2 live up to the billing to its successful Taken 1 movie? yes and no. Taken 2 has great pace in its action sequence and kept the audience glued to their seats as the sequence is so fast paced that you might miss the action if you went the the loo. Director Oliver Megaton really excel in keeping the past interesting. But Taken 2 has taken on a more action-plot storyline rather than a mixture of emotion - action plot that makes "Taken 1" so successful. This will be a forgettable movie in few months unlike "Taken 1"
Verdict:
I give this a 3.5 star out of 5

The Expendables 2: No Brains Required Action Movie

Review:
After watching the 1st movie, i came to a conclusion that this movie franchise is based on action stars coming together in the same movie - forget the unoriginal plot, forget the poor acting, forget the cheesy dialogue and forget any logic behind it. In fact, just forget everything and leave you brain at home and enjoy the masculine, adrenaline action superstars (current, upcoming and has-been stars) shooting bad guys and blow up things. So, is the sequel any different from the first? Hmmm .... let me think?? Nope, it is the same silly plot, poor acting, cheesy dialogue all over again. But i guess the success of this movie as well as the first is its action star power. Expendables 2 is able to attract more superstars than the first - with inclusion of Van Damme, Scott Adkins, Liam Helmsworth, and Chuck Norris apart from having meatier role for Schwarzenegger and Willis. Of course most of them just appear in cameo due to screen time limitation but i guess it is enough to satisfy action fans. Somehow i felt that the first movie is much better than this sequel although the action sequence for the 2nd is better. Overall, it is just a popcorn fare movie and are usually forgettable after the movie ends. It was however fun to watch so many superstars in a single movie.

Verdict:

Just a 2 out of 5 star
 

Resident Evil: Retribution - Poor, Bad, A Simple Case of Decay Zombie

Review:
I still remember the first Resident Evil, directed by the same director, Paul W.S. Anderson and i would consider that movie still the best of the whole series (of 5 up to now). I always like Resident Evil, being an avid computer gamer fan of this franchise, Resident Evil game is always scary, mysterious and entertaining. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about the movie franchise. I notice after the first part, the subsequent parts begin to slowly deteriorate and decay just like the zombies in this movie. And finally when we reach this latest fifth series, it was a full blown bullshit right in our faces. When i watch this movie yesterday, i didn't have any expectation at all so that i was able to take in all the poor storyline and senses and just enjoy the action, right? Wrong! It was so horrible that i kept cursing the movie after it ended. The movie picks up where the last Resident Evil: Afterlife ended with Alice (Milla Jovovich) battling hordes of Umbrella Corp. armies on-board a tanker but was outnumbered and knocked unconscious. She was brought back to the Umbrella Corp. detention cell where she was interrogated repeatedly by Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) who was under control. However, Alice managed to break free after an unknown force, later reveal as Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts), (no surprises there) helped her and also sent out a group of men lead by Leon and Ada Wong (Li Bingbing) to extract out Alice from the facility. Along the way, Alice and the group of men are faced by simulation zombies at Tokyo, Moscow, created by the Red Queen, the supercomputer who went crazy after the first outbreak. So basically about 95% of the 1.5 hours duration movie shows how Alice and the gang break free from the facility of Umbrella. That is also the same time where there are no dialogues whatsoever and only loud music with slo-mo action sequence. I don't remember going into a movie where there are only 5% of dialogue in the whole damn movie and was blasted with loud music and over-the-top action sequence. The only time i remember having watch at least 10% of the dialogue is from Zack Synder's "Sucker Punch". At least in Sucker Punch, i get to watch some foxy ladies in skimpy school uniform bashing monsters and etc. If the action was mesmerizing and unforgettable, then i would have forgive but it was just some same old formula from the 2nd series and it got tired and bored rather quickly. If the no dialogue is bad enough, you should have seen the acting performance of Li Bingbing, Sienna Guillory and the worst of them, Shawn Roberts. It was dreaded performances and i cringe each time they open their mouth. It was as if i was watching some low budget movie or something. Simply awful, simply dumb-fold and most importantly, simply a waste of time and money. It was like paying to watch a whole 1.5 hour of MTV video. Now that's stupidity.

Verdict:

I give this a 1 out of 5.

Ghost On Air - Weak Plot, Cheap Scare, Horrible

Review:
This is a ghost movie made-in Singapore recently released on DVD. I guess it was release in conjunction with the "7 month" , in a chinese calender meaning the month of Hungry Ghost to boost up sales. I saw many scare movies being release normally during this season every year but many of the movies are made purposely for this occasion, so throw out the good storyline and in-comes the weak plot, horrible acting, cheap scare, and most importantly a re-cycle of ghost movies. This reminds me of HK famous director/producer Wong Jing who keeps churning out garbage nonsensical movies year after year. However, Singapore has come out with quite decently scary movies such as The Maid. Anyway, lets get back to this Singapore-made movie, Ghost on Air starring famous Singapore Radio Deejay, Dennis Zhou Chongqing and also Malaysian Deejay, Gan Mei Yan. Plot is simple with Ping Xiao (Dennis Zhou), a radio deejay who lost her girlfriend Jia Li (Gan Mei Yan) after the previous apparent suicide upon staying in a room of an old shop house selling chinese prayers items, purportedly to get ghost inspiration for her novel. After the loss of his girlfriend, Ping Xiao became disillusion and was replaced on the midnight slot. He then began to tell ghost stories written by Jia Li and soon began to experience some horrific event that is similar to the novel, and starts to investigate the room of an old shop and strange things began to happen. First thing i notice is how poorly the acting of lead actor, Dennis Zhou. It was so 1 dimension with only 1 expression, angry expression. During his position being upstage by a newbie, he had this expression. during asking Jia Li's mother some question, similar expression, during doing deejay job, same expression. Next is the scare element which is very very poor and predictable such as "bending towards the door gap to check & some ghastly also looking back". The storyline is also incoherent and boring at some occasion. Awfully painful  movie to watch.

Verdict:

I give this a 1 star out of 5.

The Tall Man - Many Twist & Turns but no substance

Review:
In fact i do not know how to review this movie. To say that it wants to be original than other movie storyline would be an understatement. It does try to be unique but unfortunately it falls flat and i wouldn't be bothered to even see the rest of the movie after the first 15 minutes. The story started with the many disappearance of  children especially from broken home families from Cold Rock which lead the community to think that it was from a person they referred to as "The Tall Man". Then we are focus on nurse Julia Denning (Jessica Biel) whom also lost her son during one night to the Tall Man, and after pursuing him through the thick forest, under the van, attacked by his dog, she still lost him. Then, we were lead to believe that the whole community is plotting some sinister thing against nurse Julia Denning and that they might have something to do with the disappearing of the children. But later we were shown that all the pursing and trying to rescue by nurse Julia Denning is all a hoax and that Julia is in fact the one abducting the boy from other family and the community had began suspected Julia as the Tall Man. Finally Julia is arrested and confessed to abducting the children and killing the children. The police tries to find the bodies around the area but to no avail. Finally we saw that another tall guy in trench coat abducting a girl and then brings the girl to a wealthy family who brings up the girl as their own and given the best of education and etc. As you can see, this movie flow is full of twist and turns to confuse the viewers but i felt that it was done a little too much. There isn't a real suspense in this movie nor any good performance in this movie.

Verdict:

2 star out of 5

The Possession - Scary exorcism since The Exorcist

Review:
I went into the cinema with some expectation especially after reviewing this movie trailer just a week before the opening. For the past few months, i always had the impression that this movie is going to be the same old exorcism movie - weak, predictable, same scary moments, and i might say boring script with many influences of religion-type script involving a priest like the Rite, The Last Exorcism and Emily Rose. While movies like The Rite and The Devil Inside are a complete waste of time, there are some movie that tries to breakout from that genre like Exorcism of Emily Rose and The Last Exorcism which are slightly better but still miles behind of the brilliant The Exorcist. However after viewing the movie trailer, it shows a glimpse of promises and i decided to check it for myself. The movie is based upon true events about an antique box that kept spirits called "dybbuk" and this movie screenplay is based revolving this box. It involves a to be divorced couples - Clyde (Jeffery Dean Morgan), Stephanie Brenek (Kyra Sedgwick) and their 2 daughters - Em (Natasha Calis) and Hannah (Madison Davenport). Em stumble upon the antique box during a yard sale and began to have change in behavior such as possessive, burst of violence, rude and etc. As with similar exorcism movie, the father- Clyde notices the changes and decided to search for the root cause and this led him to suspect the haunted box. He decided to get help from a priest (this time a Jewish one) to help with the exorcism. As you can see, the script and storyline is nothing special nor complex. In fact, the movie storyline is easy to follow. So does this movie falls under the "waste of time " category? Unfortunately or rather fortunately no. It performs better than my expectation and some of the scenes are scary. The scary scenes are complimented by a very suspense background music. Scenes such as Em checking her throat, scavenging and eating raw meat from the refrigerator at night, poking the food with her fork and the scenes at the morgue are some truly scary moments. Unfortunately some of the scenes are also rather incoherent and cut off abruptly and change to another new scenes without a complete closure of the previous clip. It makes us felt that the scenes are there just for scary moments to viewers and nothing else. The acting are mediocre except for Natasha Calis playing Em whom i felt is quite good. With not much usage of any CGI nor cheap scary moments, this movie excels in being a really realistic scary exorcism movie that i felt could rival The Exorcist if they could just spare some few minutes in the editing parts for the in-between scenes.    

Verdict:

I give this a 4 out of 5 star.

The Lorax - Light-hearted but forgettable animation

Review:
Just to sums it up on this animation movie is that it is a simple movie with an embedded message to viewers on the environment impact to our earth. This animation movie is supposedly inspired by the same children story book by Dr.Seuss. The movie follows a 12-year old boy, Ted who lives in an enclosed community, Thneedville whereby everything is made of plastics and non-organic materials such as plastic neon trees, plastic gates, all water supply from water bottles, and etc. In order to win the affection of his dream girl, Audrey who wishes to see an actual real tree, Ted ventures outside Thneedville to a creature named "Once-ler" who is the only one that knows about the trees. Once there, Once-ler began to tell his story to Ted on how he first came to Trufulla Tree forest and due to greed, chopped away all the trees in the forest even with the prevention of the Lorax, a mystic creature protecting the trees. This animation movie tries to create awareness on how our greed can led to the destruction of our world but it doesn't really affect me emotionally, unlike how Toy Story 3 is able to do it. I would say that this is just a so-so animation with very direct storyline and less suspense. However, the colors are bright and beautiful to signify the greenery and lushes of the Trufulla Tree Forest. In conclusion, it is a little light-hearted for me

Verdict:

I give this a 2.5 out of 5

The Dictator - Hilarous Over The Top Comedy

Review:
I didn't really expect the movie by the eccentric Sacha Baron Cohen to be that good. I find Borat and Bruno to be an okay movie with its comedy draws on excessive nudity and vulgarity but this is a good movie with the right balance of nudity, vulgarity, comedic and easy to follow storyline.The movie showcase a dictator, Admiral General Shabazz Aladeen' tyranny and bad treatment to his fellow subjects in a country called Wadiya. However, after he has been replaced with a body double by his uncle at the UN convention in US, he found out about democracy from a lady, Zoey. So, he hatched a plan to regain back his identity and hopefully change his country perception of himself. There are many great funny moments in this movie such as how he executes his people without having second thoughts, began his life as a store assistance in US, his chemistry with his rocket scientist, Nadal. Of course you cannot have a Sacha Baron Cohen movie without some form of nudity, offensive and vulgarity and this movie does delivery all 3 in a nice possible way.
Verdict:
I give this a 3.5 out of 5

Silent House - A great suspense & believeable movie

Review:
I watch this movie without any expectation nor have i read any synopsis on this movie and boy, i am glad that i did. The movie sequence was extremely good and the pace was fantastic. They film the movie as if it was a continuous shot and makes us somehow felt that we are part of the movie inside. The movie shows that a teenage girl, Sarah together with her dad and uncle decided to clean up their vacation house so that it can be rented / sold off to some new owner. However, soon Sarah realize that they are not really alone in the house and was unable to escape from the house with an intruder lurking around. I find that the lead actress, Elizabeth Olsen as Sarah was fantastic and her acting performance deserve praises as a scared girl with no chance of escaping. Her traumatize feeling is able to be captured by the viewers and makes us feel for her, rooting her escape and feeling suspenseful throughout the movie. However, towards the end of the movie, it was a little predictable and somehow the ending was a little disappointed but overall, i feel that this is one of the movie that is genuinely scary and will have you clutching your pillow or your partner while watching it. I believe that this can be a trend setter for horror films to succeed in scaring viewers.
Verdict:
I give this a 4 out of 5. A truly suspenseful movie.  

The Raid: Redemption - All Out Crazy Action Movie

The Raid: Redemption (Indonesia)
Review
I manage to get hold of a copy called the Raid after hearing many positive review on this movie in particularly of the action scenes. After watching it, i can conclude that the storyline was just average and direct, the acting was also so-so but the action was relentless, forceful and the execution was just perfect. The movie plot is simple with a band of police swat team on operation to capture a kingpin holed up in an apartment full of criminals. A simple raid suddenly becomes complicated and dangerous when they are locked inside and the criminals started to exterminate the police team one-by-one. From then on, it is fighting all the way to the top from both sides. The action sequence is extremely believable, fast and vicious. I didn't really expected that an Indonesian movie can be on par with some of the best action movie that Hollywood can offer. The fight sequence by lead action and martial artist, Iko Uwais was extremely good and to me, it is almost equivalent with Hong Kong martial art actor, Donnie Yen. The highlight of the fight sequence in this movie must be 2 against 1 combat between Iko Uwais and Donny Alamsyah against another great martial artist in Yayan Ruhian. The fight sequence is approximately 15 minutes and you can almost feel the pain and bone crunching of all the 3 actors. In short, it could have been a great action movie if they can improve on the dialogue and scriptwriting as well as doing some better editing. However, all the flaws in this movie be ignored when the action starts and that is why it is one of the best movie that comes out from Indonesia.
Verdict:
I give this a 3 star out of 5.