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.