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