The Holiday

• Directed by Nancy Meyers
• Starring Camiron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jack Black
• This 2-hour romantic comedy is boring. It's like watching two movies, unrelated and unfunny. Too many characters and absolutely too long.

Deja Vu

• Directed by Tony Scott
• Starring Denzel Washington, Val Kilmer, Jim Caviezel
• The premise of the story is class A sci-fi material. However, director Tony Scott dumbed down the complexity and depth of the plot in favor of more action sequences, all which felt tagged on to the movie. In the end, what would have become a great sci-fi movie could only be a mildy interesting (albeit confusing) movie. If the time travelling concept is stripped away, all that is left of this movie is a barely convincing and rather shallow cop story. Telling a story with style is great, but first you got to have the story first. This movie got it the other way around. -Comment written by Dear-

The Possible (Kao Kao)

• Directed by Wittaya Thong-Yooyong
• Starring Apisit Opas-Eiamlikit (Joey Boy)
• This film tries to bring back old memories of string combo music, Afro hairstyles, bellbottom pants, platform shoes, etc., which is rather successful. However, the scriptwriting is so weak that the nostalgia isn't there. Most of the times it looks like the film is made and the script is written at the same time, or perhaps with no script at all. Some scenes, roles, and characters were created, perhaps for the fun of the filmmakers, not the audiences. Joey Boy is good at singing and rapping, but not at acting.

Death Note 2: The Last Name

• Directed by Shusuke Kaneko
• Starring Tatsuya Fujiwara, Kenichi Matsuyama
• Death Note 2 is a good continuation of the first movie. While the movie felt overlong and poorly-scripted at many points, there are still enough exciting cat-and-mouse games between Kira and L to keep the viewers interested throughout. Manga readers should note that the ending is different from the manga version, and that it is even arguably better. L fans can also look forward to an L spinoff movie scheduled for 2008. -Comment written by Dear-

Casino Royale

• Directed by Martin Campbell
• Starring Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Caterina Murino, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright
• This new Bond isn't neccessarily superior to the previous films, but it is a new brand of Bond altogether. While the old Bonds are cool gentlemen, Craig's Bond is something more like a deadly assassin. He can also get hurt, both physically and emotionally, unlike the previous Bonds. So while the other Bond movies are like superhero movies, Casino Royale is more grounded in reality. This gives more weight to his mission and tribulations. This is the first Bond movie where I can sympathize with Bond, and as a result, I was able to take the movie much more seriously than other Bond movies. Some may argue against this new Bond vision, but I welcome the change. -Comment written by Dear-

The Unseeable (Pen Choo Kab Pee)

• Directed by Wisit Satsanatieng
• Starring Siriphan Watanajinda, Supornthip Chuangrangsri, Tasawan Seniwongse
• This is a Thai-made movies about a pregnant country girl searching for her missing husband in Bangkok some 70 years ago. Everything was great at the beginning. You will feel like watching a classic horror film. However, there were soo many ghosts, shocks and twists at the end, that the feeling of horror disappeared. The story is quite familiar and you can guess the ending without any diificulty.

The Prestige

• Directed by Christopher Nolan
• Starring Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Caine
• By focusing on character study, director Nolan made the many twists and surprises in this film to be not like mere movie tricks, but rather as something that is the natural consequence or the extension of the characters' actions. The audience are not only wowed by the surprises, but also stunned by the dramatic implication that those twists will have for the characters involved. Fitting for a movie about magicians, the twists define the characters. That is the real magic of this movie. Another great film from Christopher Nolan.-Comment written by Dear-

Deep Sea 3D

• Directed by Howard Hall
• Narrated by Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet
• This is a 40-minutes 3D movies shown at an IMAX Theatre about the undersea exotic sea creatures. Although the movies doesn't tell anything new, the underwater cinematography, combined with the IMAX 3D-technology, is very impressive and spectacular. Not to mention kids, adults will also feel like scuba-diving undersea without getting wet.

The Departed

• Directed by Martin Scorsese
• Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin
• This remake of the Hong Kong hit thriller, Infernal Affairs, is one of the best hollywood remakes I've seen. Scorsese didn't merely copy the original movie, but instead tried to infuse it with his own ideas. This mostly came as a benefit to the film. Characters are more fully fleshed out, the mafia gang social interactions juicier and edgier. Nicholson and DiCaprio are spectacular in their roles, and will most likely at least be nominated for the Academy Awards this year. Matt Damon's acting, however, is outclassed by original HK actor Andy Lau. Supporting characters were also given more roles and dialogues in this version, and this gave the movie a more playful and complex tone.
• However, in the end, these little "twists" made the movie lost much of the original's honest simplicity and brutal irony. Both movies' core is really about the question of identity. What made you a cop? what made you a thug? Are you a good person who's pretending to be bad, or are you a bad person who's pretending to be good? Is there a difference really? The HK version was so memorable because these messages were very direct and very clear. Scorsese's version, however, had so many other little elements that this message became muddier. This is not to say that the movie is horrible by any means, but it's definitely less memorable than the original. - Comment written by Dear.

Death Note

• Directed by Shusuke Kaneko
• Starring Tatsuya Fujiwara, Kenichi Matsuyama
• While the acting and direction quality is mediocre at best, the smart and interesting script made this movie an exciting fun to watch. A concluding sequel is expected to be released later this year, but those who want to see sequel might do themselves a favor by checking out the original manga instead. -Comment written by Dear-
  

The Devil Wears Prada

• Directed by David Frankel
• Starring Meryl Streep, Anna Hathaway
• This movie tells an inside story about the fashion world, which is sure to be a top hit among fashion-conscious female audiences and gays but may be boring for straight men. Anne Hathaway plays a freshly-graduated girl who gets a job as assistant to a wicked, bitchy yet glamorous and charming fashion magazine editor played by Streep. The movie is amusing, enjoyable and fun, due mainly to the sensational performance of Streep. Without her, the movie may be a failure. She deserves an Oscar for this.

World Trade Center

• Directed by Oliver Stone
• Starring Nicholas Cage, Michael Pena, Maria Bello, Maggie Gyllenhaal
• In a surprising move for a movie about gigantic events like 9/11, Oliver Stone based this movie on a character study of the two protagonists and their families, rather than the actual event itself. This would have been fine if the drama was good, but here they are as boring and predictable as the soap operas you see on Thai TV, possibly even worse. At times, the movie looks like a Hallmark series rather than the grand epic it probably wants to be. The actings aren't bad. Cage did an admiring job, seeing that we only see his half-buried face (darkly lit too) for most of the movie, but the conflicts the characters find themselves in are so mundane and cliche that I want to scream "I don't care!!". As a result, the movie is neither successful as a movie about 9/11 nor about the human spirit. See United 93 for a much more intense example of a 9/11 movie, all done with no A-list stars around. On a side note, can anyone tell me why the heck is this movie called "World Trade Center"? -Comment written by Dear-

An Inconvenient Truth

• Directed by Davis Guggenheim
• Presented by Al Gore
• "This movie sucks!" -George W. Bush-

Seasons Change

• Directed by Nithiwat Tharathorn
• Starring Witawat Singhalampong, Chutima Teepanart, Yuwanart Arayanimitsakul
• The movie is cute and warm, and the music academy setting contributes in creating a romantic and stylized atmosphere. The general idea that the movie tries to convey is also familiar and even occasionally inspiring. However, in execution, the weak script lets down most of these ideas. It also doesn't help that the editing makes the movie feel like a series of short seperate stories. As a result, the movie lacks focus and unity. It's not that it's bad, but this movie could have been much better. -Comment written by Dear-

Snakes On A Plane

• Directed by David R. Ellis
• Starring Samuel L. Jackson
• This movie pretty much delivers on all its promise. There are a lot of snakes... and they're on one plane...to be used an assassination weapon... Anybody still taking this movie seriously from this point on shouldn't even be watching this movie. The concept is out of this world, the movie internal logic doesn't make any sense (the story development towards the end comes out nowhere), the acting senseless and unbelievable (most characters are created just to be disposed off in gory ways), the special effects 10 years behind its time (neither the snakes or the plane look even close to real). In short, this movie is totally ridiculous. The thing is, the movie also knows that it's totally ridiculous, so it never pretends to be something it's not, but rather tries to maximize its cheapness for comedic effect. Snakes on a Plane is great in a 'It's so very bad it's so very good' kind of way (reminiscence of "The Core"). So when Samuel Jackson's character exclaims "I'm sick of these mother%#$@# snakes on this mother&@#*( plane!!!!", you don't ponder about who the heck wrote this crap, you laugh and yell "Now bring on the next mother*&(@$ snake on this mother*&(@$ plane!!!!". Great campy fun. If you're the type who can have a good time laughing at a bad movie, see this now. -Comment written by Dear-

United 93

• Directed by Paul Greengrass
• Starring Polly Adams, Nancy McDoniel, Susan Blommaert, Ray Charleson
• Director Greengrass chose not to choose any well-known actors for this movie, which is a very risky decision. Usually when tragic events are adapted into movies, the temptation is to create central characters with interesting backgrounds for the audience to relate to. There are no such characters here, but this ends up working well for this movie. When you see nameless passengers desperately trying to survive, the impact is much more real and traumatic than seeing A-list actors pretending to die. Perhaps because of this, the movie side-steps the usual trap of making the main characters sacrifice his/her life for his country or whatever. The characters here aren't attacking the terrorists to save the people on the ground, but to save their own lives. They may not be heroic or patriotic as the media usually claimed them to be, but they are also wonderfully human, and that is what makes this movie memorable. -Comment written by Dear-

The Lake House

• Directed by Alejandro Agresti
• Starring Sandra Bullock, Keanu Reeves
• Adaptation of a famous Korean romantic fantasy "Il Mare", this movie is about a love relationship between two people in different time spans. This time-travel thing causes a few confusing plots and sometimes doesn't make sense. Somehow the chemistry between the two leads helps it work. Romantic and sweet with happy-ending. It is rather strange, though, for Sandra Bullock to play a serious and calm girl, rather than funny and clownish in her other comedy movies.

Miami Vice

• Directed by Michael Mann
• Starring Jamie Foxx, Colin Farrel, Gong Li
• As expected of Mann, this cop thriller is skilfully made. Jamie Foxx, Colin Farrel and Gong Li also deliver strong performances in their roles. Mann once again opted to use digital cameras instead of film, which gave Vice his trademark style. This worked particularly well in Collateral, where the video-look enhances the theme of confusion while also giving Los Angeles an appropriate hellish look. In Miami Vice, however, this made the bigger budget action film look a tad amateurish. Miami Vice also doesn't really try anything new. The plot is cleanly written, but uninspired and predictable. The characters constantly look like they're just one step away from delivering a great scene......only then to be yanked back by the tight leach of the script. Mann's intention was probably to create a classic genre piece, but perhaps by doing so, he limited his movie from ever reaching the standards set by his other thriller greats. As a result, overall, Miami Vice is competently made, is well-acted, is even occasionally exciting. Unfortunately, it's also utterly unmemorable. -Comment written by Dear-

Lady in the Water

• Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
• Starring Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard
• The problem of this film is the story, which is boring, unbelievable and unthrilling.

The Break-Up

• Directed by Peyton Reed
• Starring Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Aniston
• Although the trailer looks like a romantic comedy which is supposed to be hilarious and fun, this movie is in fact serious and dull. There is not enough chemistry between the two leads. I can't see any sign of love in the first place. The story doesn't make sense.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

• Directed by Gore Verbinski
• Starring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley
• This sequel is big on over the top action sequences, but as tradeoff, loses some of the original's story freshness. Every sequence with the horrendous Kraken is done exceptionally well. All characters except Depp's Captain Sparrow on the other hand, are generally a bore to watch. While the movie is seemingly way too long and too light on plot, the twists at the end surprisingly tie everything together, justifying many scenes that were seemingly unnecessary before. The whole movie might indeed turn out to be just a glorified trailer for part III, but it does work to make you care for the next movie. I'm already hyped for the final film of this trilogy. -Comment written by Dear-

Take The Lead

• Directed by Liz Friedlander
• Starring Antonio Banderas
• Based on a true story of Pierre Dulaine, a NYC ballroom dance teacher who tried to transform the troubled youths by way of teaching ballroom dancing to detention students. Antonio Banderas is charming and entertaining as expected. The music and the dance is great. Yet the story is too long and so familiar.

Superman Returns

• Directed by Bryan Singer
• Starring Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey
• The film's greatest merit, like other superhero greats (Spiderman and Singer's own X-men II comes to mind) is how it begs us to identify and relate with the hero. Brandon Routh's Superman may indeed be super (the film's SFX sequences are all spectacular), but he also has other issues to deal with just like the rest of us. Kudos to Singer who decided to give these other plotlines as much attention and screentime as the save-the-world part. The result is a well-balanced and polished film. Good superhero movies make you want to have superhero powers when you leave the theater. Great ones make you want to be the hero, sharing his/her ideals and beliefs. This is one such movie.
  
  The only real flaw is perhaps the utter uselessness of the main villain. Kevin Spacey did his best to make Luthor as memorable as he could, but when you are going against Superman, you need much more than that to stand out.
  
  IMPORTANT LESSON: When going to watch movies that children might also be present in the theater, either schedule for an evening showing or bring some transquilizer with you. Vicious elbow attacks could work too, to the child or the mother, or both. -Comment written by Dear-

Khan Kluay

• Directed by Konpin Khemkamnerd
• This 3D animation is by far the most successful local animated productions ever made in the Thai history. All the animated elephant characters are very cute and natural. Human characters are however unnatural and clumsy. The light, sound, and other special effects are above expectation. The story tells the adventure of a young elephant who tries to find his missing father before he becomes a brave and strong warrior elephant. The film might be funnier for children should Khan Kluay be an ordinary elephant whose adventure is in the forest, not in the battlefield.

X-Men: The Last Stand

• Directed by Brett Ratner
• Starring Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, Halle Berry
• New director to the series Brett Ratner did a competent job juggling all the superheroes, screentimes and plot. While he faltered in quite a few areas, Ratner delivered in the area that action fans will like: explosion special effect action sequences (that don't always make sense). The movie would have benefited greatly from a reduced number of x-mens (Halle Berry in particular contributed pretty much nothing in the film), but this being the third film in the series, this flaw is understandable. Perhaps because of this, the movie went out of its way to annihilate the heroes and villains, which will surely cause discomfort to many of the fans. -Comment written by Dear-

The Da Vinci Code

• Directed by Ron Howard
• Starring Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen, Alfred Molina, Jean Reno, Paul Bettany
• Adapted from one of the most controversial bestsellers by Dan Brown, this movie is boring, dull, too long, too dark and not at all thrilling. The director's attempt to please everybody turns out that it pleases nobody. A lesson is derived; it is impossible to make a good and satisfying movie out of a good bestseller book.

Poseidon

• Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, John Seale
• Starring Josh Lucas, Kurt Russel, Richard Dreyfuss, Emmy Rossum
• Due to the fact that this movie is a remake of the most successful 1972 predecessor "The Poseidon Adventure" played by Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, and Shelley Winters, I cannot help feeling biased to conclude that this movie is boring and unthrilling. Very disappointing.

Mission: Impossible III

• Directed by J.J. Abrams
• Starring Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Phillip S. Hoffman, Billy Crudup, Laurence Fishburne
• Tom Cruise is back in the third sequel of the film "Mission: Impossible", which is the most satisfying and much, much better than the second sequel directed by John Woo. This one, smartly written and directed by J.J. Abrams, is action-packed, exciting, thrilling, fast, and fun, from the beginning to the end.

Match Point

• Directed by Woody Allen
• Starring Jonathan Rhys-Myers, Scralett Johansson, Emily Mortimer
• Written and directed by Woody Allen, this film is a dramatic thriller about sexual passion, obsession, ambition, hunger for wealth, and murder. It is outstanding and different from other suspense movies because it is so straight-forward and unpredictable. The ending twist is shocking and thrilling. The best part of the film, I think, is how it ends--it leaves the audiences to think and imagine what is going to be next.

Broken Flowers

• Directed by Jim Jarmusch
• Starring Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright, Sharon Stone, Tilda Swinton, Jessica Lange, Julie Deply
• The movie tells the story of a successful but lonesome man who tries to find his son, although he is not sure he has one, by visiting his former girlfriends who might be the mother. After meeting them, he is more lost, more lonesome, more confused and more empty. This movie is written for Bill Murray, who made a big success in "Lost in Translation". Funny but sad movie.

She's The Man

• Directed by Andy Fickman
• Starring Amanda Bynes, Channing Tatum
• A romantic comedy inspired by Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night", this movie is more fun and entertaining than I'd expected. Amanda Bynes is cute, lovable and funny. This movie is made for her.

Failure to Launch

• Directed by Tom Dev
• Starring Matthew McConaughey, Sarah Jessica Parker
• The title of the movie describes itself. This is neither a romantic nor a comedy. There are many supposed-to-be funny plots, involving supporting cast, which are unrelated to the main theme of the movie. Horrible scriptwriting.

Inside Man

• Directed by Spike Lee
• Starring Clive Owen, Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster
• A story about bank robbers playing cat-and-mouse chase with policemen. Interesting and complicating scriptwriting with clever twists and turns and best performances of casts, especially Jodie Foster. The film is, however, not a thriller movie that you can expect to get excitement from.

Where the Truth Lies

• Directed by Atom Egoyan
• Starring Kevin Bacon, Colin Firth, Alison Lohman
• A story about two nightclub entertainers and a mystery behind the dead body of a woman found in their hotel suite. Interesting script and plot. The film jumps back and forth between the present and the past, which is confusing, due in part to the likeness of the two actors in different times (they don't grow old in 15 years) and the resemblance of the two actresses (they look so much alike).

V For Vendetta

• Directed by James McTeigue
• Starring Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea
• Produced and co-written by the Wachowski brothers who directed and wrote The Matrix sequels, the film tells the story of a young woman who was rescued by a masked man, known as "V", who has dedicated himself to freeing citizens of England from the corrupted and cruel government. This is an interesting action-filled drama movie, yet very complicated and serious. Natalie Portman is too pretty and over-reacted. The famous line, "People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.", is quite familiar around here, in Thailand, don't you think?

A History of Violence

• Directed by David Cronenberg
• Starring Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, William Hurt, Ed Harris
• An action-packed drama about a family man who tries to forget his past as a professional killer. This is one of the best films directed by Cronenberg, especially the bold and violent action scenes, which are so real and unpredictable, and the extremely hot sex scenes. Very entertaining.

The Constant Gardener

• Directed by Fernando Meirelles
• Starring Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz
• A political thriller and drama about a British diplomat who tries to find out the mystery behind his wife's murder. Well-made movie but too serious and complex.

Walk The Line

• Directed by James Mangold
• Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon
• The film tells a biography of famous country star Johny Cash (1932-2003) during his early years, which focuses on love relationship between him and his wife, June Carter Cash (1929-2003). Outstanding acting and musical performances by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, the movie is entertaining with a lot of great country songs.

Crash

• Directed by Paul Haggis
• Starring Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Ryan Phillippe, Sandra Bullock, Brandan Fraser
• A number of American people with different races, class and status crash with each other in L.A. The film deals boldly with racism, terrorism and prejudices. Excellent scriptwriting and film editing.

Brokeback Mountain

• Directed by Ang Lee
• Starring Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway
• This is one of the greatest and most romantic love stories. Beautifully shot and best performed by Ledger and Gyllenhaal, the movie tells the story of forbidden love of two gay cowboys -- heartbreaking, deeply moving, and tragic. If you have no bias against homosexual, you will find that this drama movie opens and breaks your heart and stays with you even after it ends. Apart from Sense and Sensibility, this is Ang Lee's best film and he deserves the Oscar Award.
• Below are some of the most romantic scenes in the movie that I like.

Munich

• Directed by Steven Spielberg
• Starring Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Geoffrey Rush
• A true story about the aftereffects of the Palestinian terrorist attacks on the Israeli athletic team during the 1972 Olympic games in Munich. This is a serious, tense, violent and action-packed drama. Spielberg deserves credit for his courage to make this thought-provoking movie although he got heavily criticised for this controversial moral issue.

Prime

• Directed by Ben Younger
• Starring Uma Thurman, Meryl Streep, Bryan Greenberg
• The trailer leads us to think that this is a romantic comedy movie with Meryl Streep and Uma Thurman taking leading roles. In fact, this is a serious love movie which focuses on the relationship between a 37-year-old woman and a 23-year-old man. The problem is the scriptwriting, which is dull and boring.

Memoirs of a Geisha

• Directed by Rob Marshall
• Starring Ziyi Zhang, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, Ken Watanabe
• Based on a bestseller novel by Arthur Golden, this is a story of a Japanese girl, Sayuri, who became a geisha in 1929. The film is enjoyable with happy ending. It is however quite shallow and doesn't tell much about the real life of geishas. All Chinese actresses deliver fine performances, but I think the film would be much better if it uses Japanese casts who speak Japanese with English subtitle.

Just Like Heaven

• Directed by Mark Waters
• Starring Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo
• A romantic comedy about a medical intern, who had been in coma due to a car accident, and a desperate guy who rented her apartment. The reason I saw this movie is to kill time and did not expect to get anything much. Surprisingly, the movie turns out to be pleasing and fun. Both Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo are charming, sweet, and funny. The script is smart, although it is lousy at the end.

The Family Stone

• Directed by Thomas Bezucha
• Starring Diane Keaton, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rachel McAdams, Claire Danes, Dermot Mulroney, Luke Wilson
• A story about a Christmas holiday gathering of a New England family. There are a lot of big-name actors and actresses who deliver fine performances. The only problem is the script.

The Emperor's Journey (aka March of the Penguins)

• Directed by Luc Jacquet
• An amazing French documentary film about the mating and breeding rituals of the emperor penguins in Antarctica. It is a story of love, responsibilities, survival and sacrifice -- the film that makes some of us shameful to be born human and yet cannot match the love and responsibilities of the penguins.