- Directed by Pedro Almodovar
- Starring Penelope Cruz, Carmen Maura
- This Spanish film is a pleasure to watch. It tells a story about women -- mothers and daughters, families and friends. The film has everything -- comedy, drama, murder, and ghost! Penelope Cruz delivers the best performances she has done so far. The character is made for her -- charming, strong, energetic, funny and vulnerable woman. It's not a surprise that she has been nominated for the Best Leading Actress in the Academy Awards this year.
- Directed by MC Chatrichalerm Yukol
- Starring Captain Wanchana Sawasdee, Nopachai Jayanama, Inthira Chaoroenpura, Napasorn Mitraim
- This movie is much easier to watch and enjoy than its prequel, mainly because there's enough action and unintentional comedy to smooth the same flaws that plague the first movie. Since there are no more child actors around, the acting has also generally improved. What this movie really lacked though, is a capable villain. The villains here are all either totally incompetent and/or lack any screentime. So there are really no challenge to King Naresuan's battles. The "rifle scene", which should have been a classic, if done right, also fell way short of its potential.
- Overall, this movie is your average war movie that is still too overlong for its own good. The only really unique thing this movie did was setting up a scenario where tribal VooDoo headhunters must fight with Mon Amazoness warriors.....in Thailand...with wire-fu actions even! Truly an international epic! -Comment written by Dear-
- Directed by Bill Condon
- Starring Jamie Foxx, Beyonce Knowles, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson
- Adapted from a real story of a popular musical group, "The Supremes", in the late Motown Era, this movie tells a story about three girlfriends from Chicago forming a singing trios under the management of a former car salesman. This movie is a great musical drama, entertaining and educational, with strong preformances of actors and actresses. Beyonce, despite her fine performances, is overshadowed by Jennifer Hudson, who plays a remarkable singer "Effie White" and is most likely to get The Oscar Award this year.
- Directed by MC Chatrichalerm Yukol
- Starring Somphop Benjathikul, Sorapong Chatree, Chatchai Plengpanich
- This first movie of the grand Naresuan trilogy came off as being more like a live action history book than a movie. That's not to say that the history book is boring. No, the story is told with enough production value likely to keep even 14-year old Thai boys interested for the whole duration of this very long movie. Before your imagination runs wild, this is still nothing in comparison to epic Hollywood movies in terms of production value. Return of the King has like 100 siege towers. The legend of Naresuan: Vol. 1 has 2. Since we're so used to the Hollywood mega war scenes, this difference shows up very clearly on screen. It gives the impression that we're seriously overreaching ourselves. Heck, if you don't have the money, why bother making half-assed war scenes? There's better areas to spend them on, like....the story. Ah, yes, the story.
- To its credit, this movie is clearly superior, plot-wise, to its spiritual predecessor "The Legend of Suriyothai". The characters are more interesting and possess more depth. The star that holds everything together in this movie is Buyinnong, the Burma king who is at once both ruthless and benevolent. He proves to be quite an interesting character. The conflicted-king Thammaracha is also a multi-dimensional character, something not seen at all in Suriyothai. The problem though, is that this is still not nearly enough. A movie becomes extremely boring when your "hero" is a pampered 2-dimensional goody-two-shoes with the almighty power of plot devices. Similarly to Suriyothai, the filmmaker considers it taboo to add any kind of faults to Naresuan, making him all wise and kind, while making the potential villain Mangsamkiat the evil cousin archetype. This is not the model for a movie, but for a cheap soap opera. These two characters could have had some great conflicts that draw empathy to both sides, but no, the message we get is "Nareusuan: good; Mangsamkiat: spoiled brat". This could of course really be the case, but why doesn't the movie try to dig into why Mangsamkiat is a spoiled brat, and why does he hate Naresuan so much?
- I guess the key-word here is "conviction". Naresuan and all the other "good Thai" characters in this movie say patriotic lines in like half the 3 hours screenplay. I can understand what they're saying, but I can't believe them. I don't see enough reason why these princes and princesses could think so much of freedom and such, when they've always enjoyed a luxurious life, especially Naresuan who is treated better than Buyinnong's own sons and heirs. I don't see how they could be so fixated on winning freedom for the Thai people. Of course, you can tell me, "It's because they are great and patriotic yada yada yada". Fine, I get what you're saying, but I can't believe in it because I can't relate to them at all. A character becomes believably patriotic when despite overwhelming desire not to be one, he/she still chooses to be one. There has to be a price for that decision. That is the condition where being patriotic actually means something besides being a load of impressive words.
- Throughout the movie, Naresuan has shown no other desire but to return Thai to Thai people. His characters is a straight arrow all the way, always sure of his target. This might have made him a hero, or even a saint, but this doesn't make him "great". We can't relate to someone who's so sure of his goals and is without any flaws. Granted, King Naresuan may have been like that in real life, god bless him for that, but his kind of character makes for an enormously boring character. He doesn't possess any internal conflict. Screenwriting 101 teaches everybody this, you know. This is why Thammaracha and Buyinnong are such fascinating characters, and why the rest of them are more like characters taken out of a soap opera. I'm here to see a good movie, not a glorified history textbook. I don't care how you need to add your own things to history to make it interesting, as long as it becomes interesting. There's no merits in making a movie as historically accurate as possible when it turns out to be boring. None whatsoever. I wanted to like King Naresuan. I really do. I want to be proud of him like the movie obviously wanted me to do. But since I can't even relate to him as a human being, I could not bring myself to like him at all. Even Mangsamkiat draws more sympathy out of me than our main character.
- This being the first part of trilogy, of course there's always room for improvement. Despite all that I've said, I'm really looking forward to the second part. I hope there's some huge improvement. If that's not to be, heck, I could always enjoy some more Tony Jaa-style action. -Comment written by Dear-
- Directed by Edward Zwick
- Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly, Djimon Hounsou
- This action-packed drama film is thrilling, tragic, educational, and entertaining. Leonardo DiCarprio delivers stunning performances, both in action and drama scenes. He has proved himself to be a highly-capable actor and take away his picture as a young lover boy in "Titanic", "Romeo and Juliet", or "Catch Me If You Can".
- Directed by Brian De Palma
- Starring Josh Harnett, Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank, Aaron Eckhart
- The story is about two LAPD detectives assigned to go after the 1947 murder of a Hollywood actress. The director tries to put in so many subplots and characters that it feels like watching more than one movie--a cruel murder which is the theme of the movie, a love triangle, a police corruption, a story of an insane family, etc.
- 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.
- 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-
- 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.
- 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-
- 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-
- 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.
- 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-
- 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.
- 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.
- 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-
- 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.
- 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-
- Directed by Davis Guggenheim
- Presented by Al Gore
- "This movie sucks!" -George W. Bush-
- 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-
