ARE YOU EXCITED YET? The new Godzilla poster, showing the kaiju larger than ever looming over skyscrapers certainly got my blood pumping with thrill. The reboot will be in cinemas this coming May.
Guardians of the Galaxy's FIRST OFFICIAL TRAILER
After getting the first taste from the teaser clip, we can all now feast our eyes on the first official trailer of the much anticipated Guardians of the Galaxy.
Directed by James Gunn, GotG will be in cinemas August 1st, 2014 after Captain America: The Winter Soldier's May 4th premiere.
That Awkward Moment Review
Directed by: Tom Gormican
Casts: Zac Efron, Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Imogen Poots, Mackenzie Davis
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Release Date: 31 January 2014
When Mikey (Jordan)'s wife cheated on him with a lawyer, his two best friends Jason (Efron) and Daniel (Teller) made a pact with him to stay single together for as long as possible. However, things get complicated when Jason meets and falls in love with Ellie (Poots), Daniel's relationship with his best friend Chelsea (Davis) turns romantic and Mikey attempts to reconcile with his now ex-wife.
Praises: That Awkward Moment occasionally offers a laugh here and there. It is a no-brainer film that rewards exhausted patrons a chance to lay back, let the mind shut off and still comprehends the sex jokes.
Complains: It is horrendously dull and ridiculously unhilarious for most of the time. The jokes (sex or not) is both flat out lame and crude. The entire film is shallow, even for rom-com standards. There is literally no imagination and creativity at work here.
Not to mention, Zac Efron and Michael Jordan are both extremely painful to watch, though Teller and Davis' chemistry are slightly entertaining. Each remark/joke thrown at each other felt so scripted and rigid even Arnold Schwarzenegger sound chirpy when compared. The characters are akin to moping around the screen lifelessly, without the drive and energy to perform. Having watched Charlie St. Cloud, my perception towards Efron as "the cheesy guy from High School Musical" changed for the better. I see him as a capable actor that, given the right role and script, can pull of something amazing. But here he is, again, in a role that amuses maybe the twelve year-olds.
From beginning to end, the plot follows a standardized template, found in other 99 rom-coms and attempts to please you with "sex and shit jokes". There is nothing clever nor funny in this piece with major events and climax detectable from miles away.
Rating: 2.7/10
Hit or Miss: We have all seen films about guys (or girls) that are afraid of commitment, met the "special" someone that changes that and everyone has a happy ending. Seriously, what are you trying to sell with this utter pile of crap? MISS.
9 Good and Bad Romance Films Since 2010
Romance. Over the years, there are many kinds of romance films: those that made you teared up, those that warm your heart, those that made you think back of your own sweet memories with loved ones, those that tickle your balls and those that made you cringe with overwhelming cliches. It is one of those genre of films that is fast running out of creativity; you can't have one without feeling that it's near identical to the other you seen days or weeks ago.
Now, let's take a look at 9 of the best and worst cheesiest romance films of late, in no specific order whatsoever.
1. The Vow
It is one of the most talked-about romance film in 2012 starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum. The Vow tells the story of a woman who suffered amnesia after an unfortunate accident and has no recollection of her life shared with her just-married husband. It is a heart-warming tale and though I didn't end up crying a river, I am certainly emotionally moved by Tatum and McAdams' solid and impactful performance in telling the story of how pure love can be, even when the other sees you as complete stranger.
2. Blue Valentine
One of Ryan Gosling's best, alongside The Notebook. Sometimes if a person is not careful enough, loving a person too much can lead to obsession. That is when your partner feels you're too stressful to be with. Also starring Michelle Williams, it's a heart-wrenching tale of how a love so strong that brought two people together eventually became the downfall of their marriage. As Gosling's and Williams' marriage is breaking down to pieces, we get to see how they begin in the first place, how intense their love was for each other before everything went blue.
3. About Time
Not the first (Time Traveller's Wife) but a pretty unusual romance film involving time travelling. Domhnall Gleeson plays a man named Tim, who discovered he has the ability to travel in time to any point of his life as he chooses and decides to use it to get himself a girlfriend. When he meets Mary (Rachel McAdams) he know he has found the right one; but a series of unfortunate events made Tim realize that getting the love of his life is not as easy as it seems, and not even time traveller has all the time in the world.
With a balance of love, drama, humour and wits, I am surprised, entertained and moved by this piece.
4. Ruby Sparks
Not highly publicised nor promoted, Ruby Sparks is a romantic film with many, many unexpected realism about love and relationships. There is so much honesty and cuteness in this that left me laughing and crying towards the end. A story of how a socially-awkward Calvin (Paul Dano) wrote the "perfect girlfriend" Ruby Sparks for his upcoming book and gets the shock of his life when he find Ruby (Zoe Kazan) suddenly shows up in his living room one day.
It is an uncommon love story and have many beautiful quotes throughout.
5. Don Jon
Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut is also another love story with abundance honesty. There is no attempt to make it Holly-cheesy and the strong performance of its casts made it my personal pick as the best rom-com of 2013. Just when Jon thinks watching porn is better than any real sex, he meets two very different women that turns his world upside down.
6. Upside Down
One of those romance film who decided to go 'out-of-the-box' but didn't get it quite far off. Set in a world parallel to ours with dual gravity, Upside Down tells the story of star-crossed lovers Adam and Eden (oh the names!) who must go against the very force of nature (and government) to be together. Visually stunning and beautiful yet falls short in terms of narrative. Interesting concept but with poor execution.
7. Safe Haven
I like how it's sort of a thriller-romance hybrid and the gloomy settings of the film help give it some kind of tragic feel. Sadly, those didn't work too well. Not enough suspense to even place it as an average thriller. Not to mention the film is packed with overwhelming cliches (the rain while canoeing, really?) The beauty of it really goes to the chemistry between Josh Duhamel and Julianne Hough but everything else is just too cheesy that I cringe everytime the characters exchange love dialogues.
8. This Means War
This Means War is anything but funny and romantic. It is so badly written that Sean Connery will have gotten 10 years older watching this. Looking at Reese Witherspoon deciding who is the hotter guy between Chris Pine and Tom Hardy is certainly less than enticing. I feel trapped and nauseated listening to her rambling on life-turning dilemmas and oh the plot twist at the end? Even my 8 year old nephew will see that coming.
9. Love and Other Drugs
There's a lot to laugh at and weep about in this film, but what sold it to me was the impeccable chemistry between Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hatthaway. The authenticity of their love in midst of a series of misfortunes is enough to move the spirits of even the emotionally sturdy ones. I especially love rom-com that is brutally honest about reality.
RoboCop Review
Directed by: José Padilha
Casts: Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Abbie Cornish
Genre: Science Fiction, Action Adventure, Fantasy
Release Date: 30 January 2014
Robocop is a cult classic that most kids growing up in the 1990s would definitely know about. In this modern remake, multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is the forerunner in advance technology, particularly in military weaponry. Determined to bring their technologies back home, they see the perfect opportunity when detective Alex Murphy, who is also a loving husband and father, was caught in a near-fatal car explosion. Offering the only option to save the life of Murphy by turning him into part-man, part-machine, OmniCorp plan to use Murphy as a start to instate the RoboCop program in every city and generating billions of profits. They almost succeed, but they miscalculated one thing: the man inside the machine has a stronger sense of justice than any man-made program.
Praise: I will admit I am very sceptical of yet another Hollywood remake of a well-known franchise. RoboCop is so well-established that all I'm seeing is Hollywood's next attempt to revive an old phenomenon to generate more profit. But I have to say that the revamp of Robocop's story, characterisation, theme and even the suit design is plausibly refreshing. The overall tone of the film is more balanced as opposed to the more gory 1987 original. I am not saying that the darker original is a bad thing; in fact I love the 1987 RoboCop more. Will get to that later. But by injecting several other themes such as family love and the scientist-conscience-guilt of a certain Dr. Norton (Gary Oldman), there is more soul in the film and offer other perspectives of things to ponder at.
Joel Kinnaman's take on a modern-day Murphy is pretty amiable. His performance is believable and coupled with a strong support from Abbie Cornish as his wife Clara Murphy, RoboCop has become more relatable to us audience. In fact, I find the particular scene where he is struggling to override the controlling program in him by playing the scene of his son in his mind over and over again to be very emotionally impactful. Gary Oldman is way over the charts in this one; the best I have seen him ever since the Dark Knight trilogies. His take on a conflicted scientist, doing between what he is told and what he believe is right, to pursue ambition or embrace humanity. I find him the most appealing character in the entire film.
Not to forget Samuel L Jackson's stunt as the egoistic TV presenter Pat Novak. This role is no cupcake; every word uttered from his mouth depicts the illness of American media, of American corporate monopoly and of the ill-proudness of American society over their own nation.
The film's special effects and CGIs are sleek and nifty. Though a black colour RoboCop is like a byproduct of Tony Stark-meet-Bruce Wayne, eventually I kinda dig into the more slender, modern and less bulky look. It's a RoboCop with more cool-factor to offer. With some new twists and thrill, it is a decent remake.
Complains: I simply do not find the film memorable at all. This remake feels way too pacified for my liking. As mentioned above, I appreciate director José Padilha's effort to generate some fresh metals for us audiences to gnaw on but ultimately, the darker and grittier RoboCop reigned supreme. There just wasn't enough intensity in the overall film to even keep me focused or interested. I constantly find myself having time for my thoughts to wander on the other stuffs like how pretty Clara's hair is or how weird it is to see Lewis as a dude.
Next we have one-dimensional villains that further made the film more dull than ever. Michael Keaton as OmniCorp CEO Raymond Sellars ticks off every single criteria in the checklist of cliché corporate villain - rich, egoistic, greedy, and a pushover. There is no 2nd page to Sellars; no character depth. The same simplicity can be said about OmniCorp's military tactician Rick Mattox (Jackie Earle Haley). Cheesy villains waiting to be knock off by RoboCop just doesn't cut it.
The film is different enough than that of the original but not necessarily an improvement. In a matters of months, or weeks even, people will forget pretty much about the new RoboCop.
Rating: 5.7/10
Hit or Miss: Watch it just to see how RoboCop will look like in black. It doesn't make you cringe watching it, but like I said, it's an easily forgettable film. Miss.
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