Monday, December 22, 2008

The Day The Earth Stood Still



  • Directed by Scott Derrickson
  • Starring Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly
  • A truly half-assed apocalyptic film. The various plot lines feel artificial and ultimately inconsequential in this movie, and it felt like watching a bunch of people I don't care about getting killed or whatever. Special effects are standard Hollywood stuff, nothing exciting. -Comment written by Dear

Friday, December 05, 2008

20th Century Boys



  • Directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi
  • Starring Toshiaki Karasawa
  • Forget the movie. Read the comic. The wayyyy over the top nuclear explosion might be worth watching just for the laughs. -Comment written by Dear

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Quantum of Solace



  • Directed by Marc Forster
  • Starring Daniel Craig, Mathieu Amalric, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, Olga Kurylenko
  • A real disappointment. It's hard to explain where the movie went wrong. I think it tried hard to build out of the success from Casino Royale, but that lack of ambition made it worse than the original in every single ways. -Comment written by Dear

Friday, October 24, 2008

Tropic Thunder



  • Directed by Ben Stiller
  • Starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr.
  • The funniest satire film I've seen in years. Well done. -Comment written by Dear

Friday, October 10, 2008

Body of Lies



  • Directed by Ridley Scott
  • Starring Leonardo DiCarprio, Russell Crowe
  • Excellent performance from DiCarprio, and Crowe delivers his usual stuff. Script is strong, cinematography wonderful. However, in the end the film lacks a clear direction in which to steer itself, and this shows in the disappointing climax (or lack thereof). This is a movie where the individual parts are stronger than the whole package. -Comment written by Dear

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Eagle Eye



  • Directed by D. J. Caruso
  • Starring Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan
  • With a recycled plot resembling gazillion other movies like Terminator, Eagle Eye does not break new grounds. The special effects are slick and cool, but that's about it for this movie. -Comment written by Dear

Friday, September 12, 2008

Bangkok Dangerous



  • Directed by Oxide Pang Chun and Danny Pang
  • Starring Nicholas Cage, Chakrit Yamnarm
  • Nicholas Cage's hairstylist in this movie and Tom Hanks' s in The Da Vinci Code must be the same person !

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Made of Honour



  • Directed by Paul Weiland
  • Starring Patrick Dempsey, Michelle Monaghan, Sydney Pollack
  • Despite poor scriptwriting and familiar plots, Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan are cute in this romantic comedy film.

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Sukiyaki Western Django



  • Directed By Takeshi Miike
  • Starring Hideaki Ito, Kaori Momoi
  • The movie tells a story of a mysterious gunman who comes across a deserted town controlled by two rival clans. They persuade him to take side with them, but he instead chooses to join a group of townspeople led by a woman. Like watching "Kill Bill", this film is soaked with blood but not violence, because it is unbelievable and full of weird, crazy humor. If you like Kill Bill, you'll love this film.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Mamma Mia!



  • Directed by Phyllida Lloyd
  • Starring Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth
  • As one of ABBA's huge fans, I had a lot of fun watching this musical movie. Meryl Streep is so fantastic and fun while Amanda Seyfried fascinates us with her lovely voice. Pierce Brosnan's terrible voice, however, is compensated by Colin Firth's singing talent. For me, watching this musical film is much more enjoyable than the Broadway show at New York City because here I can see everything, while there all I could see were heads of the people in the front rows.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

WALL-E



  • Directed by Andrew Stanton
  • WALL-E is a wonder for the eyes and the heart. A purely enjoyable romantic adventure. -Comment written by Dear

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Be Kind Rewind


  • Directed by Michel Gondry
  • Starring Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny Glover, Mia Farrow
  • The film's story may not be that great in the classical sense, but damn it is fun. What the characters are doing may not be totally believable or probable, but I sure had fun with them. Like the video renters in the movie, I really wanted to watch the movies that they shot, and I also wanted to create the movies with them. The film has a pro community message, and it succeeds so well because it reaches to the audience not with brains, but with heart. -Comment written by Dear

Friday, August 01, 2008

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor



  • Directed by Rob Cohen
  • Starring Brandan Fraser, Jet Li, Maria Bello, John Hannah, Michelle Yeoh
  • Speaking as a critic, I would say that the movie is a mess, with laughable scripts and acting across the board, and once again a tragic misuse of Jet Li (Will Hollywood ever give him the role he deserves?). However, Brandan Fraser looks so comfortable and fun in this adventure that he lifts the movie from utter failure to an at least watchable level. -Comment written by Dear

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Red Cliff



  • Directed by John Woo
  • Starring Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi
  • This is John Woo firing all cylinders in an ancient China setting. The attempts at political setups are admirable, if not a little too biased towards the 'good guys', but Woo's usual flair for crowd pleasing action sequences is the definite star of the movie. Terrific acting across the board, especially by Tony Leung. -Comment written by Dear

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Hellboy II: The Golden Army



  • Directed by Guillermo Del Toro
  • Starring Ron Perlman, Selma Blair
  • Highly enjoyable. The acting and script is so very self conscious of the super hero genre that it pokes so much fun in itself (look forward to the show stopping duet between two of the main characters). The action sequences are terrific this time around as well. But the highlight is definitely Del Toro's unique blend of animatrics and CG animations in creating his fantasy world. It's like Pan's Labyrinth times 100, and the result is absolutely spectacular. -Comment written by Dear

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The Dark Knight



  • Directed by Christopher Nolan
  • Starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine
  • I cannot find enough good things to say about this movie. This story is about the pursuit of justice and virtue, and the way it goes about exploring this theme goes far beyond the previous limits of a super-hero movie into the realms of classic crime sagas like The Godfather II. The movie has so many layers that each repeated viewings bring about another angle to the conflict that you might not have noticed before. I need not say anything about the stellar casts, who are all excellent, especially Heath Ledger's Joker, which is so memorable that it has become the real icon of the movie. Christopher Nolan has truly stepped into the best class of directors with this film, and I look forward to whatever he decides to create next. Bravo, sir, Bravo! -Comment written by Dear

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Hancock



  • Directed by Peter Berg
  • Starring Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman
  • Despite great superstars Will Smith and Charlize Theron, this film is a failure due totally to its story.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Wanted



  • Directed by Timbor Bekmambetov
  • Starring James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman
  • A super hero movie for the adult crowd, with a taste for spectacular actions. It gets 5 stars in terms of over-the-top actions, and the rest of the film is also nothing to laugh at, either. Destined to be a cult classic. -Comment written by Dear

Saturday, June 14, 2008

The Incredible Hulk



  • Directed by Louis Leterrier
  • Starring Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt
  • The movie was alright, but the fact that of the entire movie, I was most excited by the fan-service cameo ending doesn't look well for the rest of the movie. -Comment written by Dear

Monday, June 09, 2008

Sex and the City: The Movie



  • Directed by Michael Patrick King
  • Starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis
  • Men may want to know why this HBO series was so famous among women that it is made a big screen movie. The 2-hour movie is full of fashions, brands, sex, and other materialistic values, all of which are nonsense and shameful. Well, that's why this movie is fun and entertaining. C' mon, it is just a movie. We know these things are crazy and unreal but please give us a break because we just want to enjoy watching the girl things once in a while.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Memory (Memory Rak Lorn)



  • Directed by Torpong Tankamhaeng
  • Starring Ananda Everingham, Mai Charoenpura
  • A Thai thriller story about a young psychiatrist who falls in love and lust with his child patient's mother. The movie is interesting and thrilling at first before turns complicated and unbelievable in the end. There are unnecessary scenes/plots which should be removed. It doesn't make sense how the doctor falls in love with the mother. Does it matter whether the child is a girl or a boy? Who is the father anyway? However, despite the screenplay, the film making is neat.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of The Crystal Skull



  • Directed by Steven Spielberg
  • Starring Harrison Ford, Ray Winstone, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Shia Labeouf
  • This film brought back memory of the old times, over 25 years ago, when we had so much fun watching Steven Spielberg's series of the Indiana Jones movies. Prior to seeing this film, I wondered whether Harrison Ford could be able to play the daring action hero Indiana Jones as he is now 64. It turns out that he is still good and fits for this role.

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Iron Man



  • Directed by Jon Favreau
  • Starring Robert Downey Junior, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard
  • Robert Downey Junior IS Iron Man. His unusual protagonist and charms help turn an already very competent superhero movie into a hugely entertaining one. I expect, no, I want more sequels of this. Good visual designs all around from the FX teams as well. - Comment written by Dear

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Vantage Point



  • Directed by Pete Travis
  • Starring Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt
  • Although the twists and turns are quite predictable, the switching of viewpoints never get old and each brings new interesting things to the viewer each time. The chase at the end is also remarkable, Jason Bourne mode. I expect more movies to use this storytelling style to greater effects in the future. -Comment written by Dear

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Jumper


  • Directed by Doug Liman
  • Starring Hayden Christensen, Jamie Bell, Samuel L. Jackson, Diana Lane
  • A hugely disappointing movie. I did not expect much from the plot, and the movie certainly did not deliver on this front. However, the Jumper idea should have lend itself to a much more imaginative and wild action sequences, and its unforgivable that this movie could not even do this right. -Comment written by Dear

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

American Gangster


  • Directed by Ridley Scott
  • Starring Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe
  • The potentially colossal face-off between Washington and Crowe is burdened by the story's persistent in sticking to the truth. The movie is still entertaining enough, if not memorable. -Comment written by Dear

Friday, February 01, 2008

Enchanted


  • Directed by Kevin Lima
  • Starring Amy Adams, Patrick Demsey, James Marsden
  • Really enchanting and fun to watch for both adults and children.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Cloverfield


  • Directed by Matt reeves
  • Starring Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, Odette Yustman, Lizzy Caplan
  • A really exciting movie that cleverly places you right in the middle of all the actions. The point is never about explaining where the monster came from, but how a Godzilla class event might affect the average joes. I didn't get nauseous at all from the camera style, but your mileage may vary. Despite the home video look, I strongly recommend seeing this on the biggest screen available. -Comment written by Dear

Friday, January 11, 2008

Across The Universe


  • Directed by Julie Taymor
  • Starring Jim Sturgess, Evan Rachel Wood, Joe Anderson
  • I thought I would be able to sit back, relax and listen to the original Beatles' songs but I was wrong. The film was heavy and the songs were performed by the actors/actresses in the film. Although they were very good, I was kind of disappointed.