Faces in the Crowd (US) - 50% Good Conceptual - 50% Illogical

Faces in the Crowd
Synopsis:
The movie started with Anna (Milla Jovovich), a schoolteacher and his boyfriend, Bryce who is a normal couples, with Ann having the occasion of having drinks with her 2 best mates, and with a serial killer "Tearjerk Jack" on the loose in the city. All is well until Anna, after having a drink with her mates, decided to walk home and witness a couple embracing near a bridge before the male companion slit her throat and cried over her dead body, revealing that the male companion is in face the serial killer, Tearjerk Jack. Anna panicked and accidentally her phone rang, making the serial killer aware of her witnessing the crime. As Anna tries to escape from her attacker, she was accidentally knocked in the head when falling off the bridge. As a result of the concussion, she developed a condition called "Prosopagnosia" or face blindness whereby she is unable to recognizes anyone, not even herself. When she look in the mirror, she will see another person's face and the same goes with her boyfriend, friends, family and etc. The only way for her to cope with her normal routine is to identify each person with their dress and way of movement. A homicide cop, Sam Kerrest (Julian McMahon) who is hunting the Tearjerk Killer tries to help Anna along the way and it seems that only Anna is able to recognize him and thus develop feelings for each other. However, the killer who steals Anna's personal documents begin to taunt her as he learn of Anna's weakness in identifying faces.The killer started to kill one of her best mates in a club and then her boyfriend, Bryce in an attempt to confuse her into thinking the killer is Bryce. However, as Anna is able to remember some of Bryce's habit like unloose tie, she suspects that the killer is impersonating Bryce. While escape, Sam manage to solve the killer's identity who is Sam's partner, Lanyon (David Atrakchi). During the confusion, Lanyon and Sam are both shot and dies in the end. Finally, we are shown Anna still suffering from "Prosopagnosia" but able to live a simple life in an island with only small community of people and with her daughter.
Review:
The movie is both good and bad. The good part is that it turns out to be quite entertaining in the 1st half of the movie. It has a bit of the suspense and the special effects are also good when Anna started seeing different faces in a blink of an eye. The concept of Prosopagnosia is also new and inventive and it almost give us a scary moment if we are to suffer such condition, not knowing who they are and unable to even identify your own parents. If we take out this concept, then this movie is a predictable killer-victim-cop movie with many weak plots and many illogical actions as the movie went underway. The illogical moment was that Anna is unable to identify the killer because she is unable to identify the faces. That part is true, but how about the person's voice. Are we to believe that she is also unable to identify her live-in boyfriend voice in place of a killer? It is rather silly if you ask me. And there was absolutely no chemistry between Anna and Sam but somehow they ended up together and sharing the same bed. There was not build-up to how Anna and Sam grew fond of each other and liked each other. There was also no mentioned of how Sam's partner becomes a serial killer too and why he is taunting Anna. There are many loop holes in the movie if we were to watch closely but if we choose to ignore such items, then it is an okay movie for viewing. 

Verdict:

I give this movie a 2.5 star out of 5.

The Fortune Buddies (HK) - Hillarious Comedy

The Fortune Buddies
Synopsis:
The movie starring Wong Cho Lam as Lam Luk, Johnson Lee as Jit Sau and Louis Yuen as Fook Cheung as 3 buddies who does odd jobs for a living. However, each of them have their own difficulties and financial problems with Luk and his girlfriend who's father (Eric Tsang) an ex-wrestle wanted Luk to pay down payment for a HK flat as a sincerity that Luk loves his daughter and to marry her. So, in order to pursue their dreams, Luk, Sau and Cheung took numerous jobs including supporting cast in a movie set starring Laughing Gor (Michael Tse) in few hilarious scene. Finally the three buddies decided to try their luck at Mongkok area where they became accidental wrestling stars after defeating an American wrestler unintentionally. Their wrestling match took center-stage when the wrestler and its decided to have a re-match against the trio with a purse money enough to fulfill their dreams.
Review:
I accidentally watch this movie on an airplane and all i can say is that it is a very funny and it pokes fun and taking pot shot whenever they can towards HK administration. Out of the trio, Wong Cho Lam and Louis Yuen stole most of the show while Johnson Lee is a pale figure among the whole gang. The comedy is spread evenly throughout the movie and there wasn't really a boring moment in this movie. The comedy escalate when the trio worked as a part-time cast in a Laughing Gor movie. Michael Tse playing his most famous character as Gor hits the tickle bones whenever his character is on-screen and i wish that there is more screen time focus on him. The rest of the gangs are quite okay but the comedy level decreases towards the end but overall it was an enjoying moments

Verdict:

I give this a 3.5 star over 5 for its over the top, nonsense comedic fun factor.  

Terra Nova (US-Series): A Terrific Adventure to Terra Nova

Terra Nova
Synopsis:
The TV drama series stated with the the world in the year 2149, where Earth is on the verge of extinction due to air quality deterioration and over population. At the Hope Plaza in Chicago,  scientists discover a rift in space-time that allows the people to travel back in time to 85 million years to the prehistoric Earth where the people are able to restart life again without the tainted pollution. However, the selected people and their families are those with higher qualification who are able to contribute to the development there such as scientists, doctors, agricultural experts and others. Also the current law forbids a family to have more than 2 children. So, enter the Shannon family, father is Jim (Jason O' Mara) - a homicide cop, wife Elisabeth (Shelly Connn) - a surgeon specialist in skin and others, children- Josh, Maddy and Zoe. Due to the law enforced, Jim goes to prison when he attack an enforcement team who found them having the 3rd child - Zoe following a tip-off. After 2 years, Elisabeth went to the prison to inform Jim that she and 2 children has been recruited to go to Terra Nova and hatch a plan to enable Jim escape and bringing along Zoe to Terra Nova. The plan is executed successfully and the Shannon Family is able to start a new life in Terra Nova which is headed by Commander Nathaniel Taylor (Stephen Lang), a pioneer and leader of Terra Nova who is in-charge of security and other administration task. In the beginning life is almost like a paradise in Terra Nova, but the longer they are there, they discover that they are not the only people there. They have to deal with the Sixers, lead by Mira (Christine Adams), the different types of carnivorous dinosaurs and a whole new surroundings.
Review:
I have taken a short break from watching movies (rest assured, i am in-progress of watching Arena - Samuel L. Jackson, to write a review later) and move to some drama series for a change. I got a hold of the first 7 episodes of this much hyped drama series supposedly to be the most expensive TV drama and produced by Steven Spielberg. But i was a bit skeptical since Falling Skies, another US drama series also produced by Steven Spielberg was quite weak. But, after watching the first 2 episode- Genesis, i was quite blown away by the massive production of the drama that it almost feel like i was watching a movie. The cast and acting was good and believable. I especially like Stephen Lang presence whenever he is on-screen. It almost feels like Avatar again but i do not think that Damien Garvy acting as Boylan was good but luckily other crews overall acting was good and covers all shortcomings. The cinematography was also good with some great shot of the prehistorical world with an almost like Avatar type, overall editing was tight without any dilly-dally, some of the technology-wise is also an eye-opener and the music background score is also good. From episode 3 onwards to 7, each episode presents new adventure and although not as good as the first 2 episode, it was enough to glued to the television for the next hour. Overall, this is an above average TV series and i hope that it will have enough substance to keep on continue giving surprises.
Verdict:
4 star out of 5.

Change-Up (US) - Old Formula but Good Laugh

Change-Up
Synopsis:
The movie stated with 2 best friends: Dave (Jason Bateman) and Mitch (Ryan Reynolds). Dave is a successful lawyer with a high pay job married to a beautiful wife, Jamie (Leslie Mann), having 3 kids and lived in a suburban home. Mitch is a part-time actor cum unemployed, living single life with no real attachment and lived in an apartment. Dave envy the life what Mitch is currently living, where he gets to go out with different girls, no responsibility, having his own private time while Mitch would love to be in Dave's shoe where he has everything a successful guy would love to have. Then one drinking session night, Mitch and Dave suddenly switch body after peeing in a fountain while wishing together to change their lives. In the beginning, Mitch and Dave are unable to get used to each other life and proceed to be involve in some hilarious moments. To complicate matters, the fountain was relocated to another site yet to be known. But after a while, Dave now in Mitch body starts to enjoy life especially when he now has the opportunity to go after her sexy legal assistance, Sabrina (Olivia Wilde) while Mitch now in Dave body started to feel responsible towards the legal works and taking care of the children. When the fountain was found, Mitch and Dave were having second thoughts about switching back to their own selves but in the end, both found out about the value of their own lives and changes their lives forever.
Review:
This body changing formula has been used many times like Freaky Friday, 18 Again, The Hot Chick and the same formula is also applied to this movie, Change-Up with many hilarious moments. From my experience, this is perhaps the best body-changing movie perhaps due to its "R-Rated" where many scenes of nude scenes which is necessary in this movie, profanity languages which is abundant from start till end, and drug usage too. When all these combined together, we have a no-hold-barred funny comedy that work very well in this movie. I think all actors, actresses and babies played their part really well in this movie especially 2 hot leading guys in Ryan Reynold and Jason Bateman. I particularly like Jason Bateman more in this movie and his acting is much better compared to Ryan but i guess it is because of his role where he got to portray a young wild guy in an old man's body. The movie is never boring and the laugh started from the get go until the final credit. If you stayed a little longer during the end credit, there is some more scenes. Overall this is a satisfying adult comedy movie.         

Verdict:

I give this a 3.5 star out of 5 for being a higher than average comedy movie.

Honey 2 (US) - A Weak Sequeal with Yawn Factor

Honey 2
Synopsis:
The movie started with 17-year-old Maria Ramirez (Katerina Graham) inside a juvenile home due to her previous conviction with thief. After completing her sentence, she return to her hometown under the care of Honey Daniels' mum, Connie (Lonette McKee). Connie persuade Maria to become cleaner at Honey's Dance Rehab Center and soon she realize her passion for dance never diminished. Maria soon joins up with Brandon (Randy Wayne), one of the Rehab volunteer and leader of a dance class called HD. Maria also meet up with her ex-boyfriend Luis (Christopher 'War' Martinez), the charismatic leader of 718 dance crew champion , who previously lured Maria to steal, hence sentence to a juvenile center. In order to prove herself, she competes in a television dance competitor "Dance or Die" with HD group and teaches them new routine and choreograph. Soon, HD began to win in their preliminary and play-off until the final battle where they met 718, with HD winning though their unique and slick dance.
Review:
I wasn't really hoping much for another dance movie especially after seeing many horrendous dance flick in the past except Step Up 1, 2 and Honey (1) starring Jessica Alba. But since this is a follow-up to Honey (1), why not give it a chance and we might be able to find some buried treasure inside it. The first 5~10 minutes was promising with good music vibe and not too bad dance choreograph. However, as with many dance flick, the weak dialogue, repetitive & old storyline "poor then win" formula, weak acting, this movie has it all. In fact, the only revelation between this movie and its original is the fact that they use the same building that Honey has used in the previous movie and also her mum too. It does looks like the producer of this movie is just filming for the sake of having a sequel and milking the money from poor viewers. And as my previous dance flick review stated, normally the only thing watchable is the dancing and its soundtrack. Perhaps its just me but i do not fancy soft RnB to be background music of a dance routine as in this movie. A dance routine needs to have heavy RnB music in the likes of 50 Cents, Missy Elliot, Ludacris, and etc. to get the adrenaline pumping while rooting for the dance like Step Up 2. These are not found in this movie, so a minus point there. Now, the dance choreographer is also weak in this movie. There was no oomph factor during the final battle and i felt the final battle from 718 is the weakest of the lot with no imaginative dance move and the dressing was also horrible. HD final dance was quite okay but the costume design brought heavily from Step Up 3 and it was a bit like copycat to me.    
Verdict:
 I give this a poor 1 star out of 5. Weak dance routine again.

Conan the Barbarian (US) - Brainless Non-Stop Action

Conan the Barbarian
Synopsis: 
The movie started of with a narration about a powerful mask, Mask of Acheron created by a group of sorcerers and made from the skulls of dead kings. The mask is suppose to give power to the wearer after sacrificed their pure blood daughters to the dark gods. However the wearer was defeated by the barbarian clans lead by Corin (Ron Perlman) and the mask was broken into several pieces and kept by different clans across the continental. Then, the movie panned to Corin and his young son, Conan who's mother was killed during some clashes. A new warlord, Khalar Zym (Stephen Lang) decided to conquered the world using the mask, had band together a massive army to search for the missing pieces. Together with her sorcery daughter, Marique, they discover the last missing pieces is with Corin. Thus, they attacked the village and in the process, Corin was killed but Conan was spared but vows to revenge his father's death. After many years, the now grown-up Conan (Jason Momoa) finally found a break when he saw one of Khalar Zym lieutenants and decided to interrogate him. This lead to Conan going on an adventure where he defeat Khalar Zym's lieutenants one by one and finally edging closer to Khalar Zym himself where the final battle between Conan and Khalar Zym takes place.
Review:
I finally decide to watch this Conan the Barbarian after hesitate for a long time simply because Conan portray by Arnold Schwarzenegger was the best, with enough mystical and barbarian outlook. I wasn't so sure about this movie but was quite happy that Jason Momoa portraying Conan simply because i cannot find any other actor with physical build and such savagery looks other than Momoa. Momoa was excellent in "Games of Thrones" tv series where he portray Khal Drogo, an almost Conan like character. So what would go wrong, right? After watch this movie, i wasn't quite sure if Momoa was indeed the perfect choice or perhaps, the director is unable to bring Momoa character out to portray Conan. In this movie, Momoa looks like he wasn't taking himself seriously and would always crack one or two line of jokes, and had a quirky smile afterwards. Conan isn't suppose to be that. Conan is suppose to be that savage, barbarian hulk looking and without emotion, without pity and certainly without humor like what has been portray by Schwarzenegger. If Momoa's silent but deadly Khal Drogo character was to incorporate to be Conan, then we would have a winner movie but instead we have a Ronan Dex from Stargate Atlantis as Conan. Aside from that, i found the movie quite entertaining and having non-stop action, brainless and lacking good story and script but non-the-less quite an entertaining action movie. It wasn't as bad as some of the review i saw, as it was passable and the visual effects was also not bad at all. The movie flows quite quickly with action after action, with Conan finding and defeating Khalar Zym's lieutenant like in a video game. Alas, when comes to the big boss, it was quite a disappointment. If you can minus out the main character's nonsensical action and brainless bash movie, then this update Conan the Barbarian would be a good popcorn choice.

Verdict:

I give this a 1.5 star out of 5, only because i found Rose McGowan's character as the sorcery, Marique to be quite a colorful character.

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (US) - Predictable and Un-Scary

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
Synopsis:
The movie started off in olden days in a house called Blackwood Manor where famous painter, Lord Blackwood is seen killing her servant with a hammer and removes her teeth to be offered to creatures in an ash pit. It is indicated that Blackwood's son has been kidnapped by the creatures and in return, Lord Blackwood offers them teeth in return for the safe return of his son. However, the creatures demanded children's teeth instead and proceed to attack Blackwood and drag him down too. Then, the movie is panned to present day where Alex (Guy Pierce), Kim (Katie Holmes) and Kim's stepdaughter, Sally (Bailee Madison) who moves in to the Blackwood Manor temporary since Alex is an interior who helps to restore the Manor to be sold to the market. However, the creatures began to sense the presence of Sally and began making contact and befriended her. In the beginning, everything seems fine but the creatures began to create trouble by purposely tearing Kim's clothing, and then attacking her and Alex's servants. At first, Alex and Kim didn't believe her and thought that Sally is making stories because of missing her mom but after more and more incident seems to happen around Sally, Kim started to investigate and chance upon Blackwood's unpublished artwork that shows creatures attacking human child and changing them into creatures. When Kim and Alex decided to finally moves out, the creatures started their attack on all 3 of them and it was shown that one of the creature looks like Blackwood. Due to Kim's intervention in the final moments, Sally was saved from being dragged down but Kim instead is the one dragged down the ash hole like Blackwood. After some time later, Kim voice is heard inside the ash hole telling the other creatures to wait for other potential victims.
Review:
I decided to watch this film with high anticipation that this film is almost as scary as another of Film District production, "Insidious" and with Guillermo Del Toro at helm as writer and producer to boot with. But after watching this movie, i can say that this is not Insidious. It is not scary, the editing is also not so well done, and it can be said as practically boring and predictable movie. First of all, the creatures are shown almost immediately after 15 mins in the movie and they look more adorable, funny and a nuisance tooth fairy than scary creatures that they are suppose to be depicted in the movie. Of course the creatures get maniac in the end but somehow it doesn't shows the scariness of it. Once the creatures are shown, the whole movie goes down because of their looney character. It almost felt like the whole movie is a fantasy movie rather than a reality and present moment. The human character is secondary especially for Guy Pierce but Bailee Madison did a good job as a small girl with mature thinking and character. This is a forgettable movie in comparison with another of Film District movie, Insidious where there is genuine scare, jump, good editing and non-stop entertaining. Now that's what i called a scary movie and after watching that movie, i am indeed afraid of the dark.

Verdict:

A 1.5 star of out 5.