Taken from http://snarkerati.com

Coming-of-age road-trip movies are always fun to watch, especially when it involves dork boys trying to become men (think American Pie) . In The Inbetweeners,  the 4 main characters Will, Simon, Jay, and Neil spend two weeks in Malia, Crete after their A Levels. Their trip was not without hiccups – plane delays, paltry accommodation (the landlord fished a dead dog out of the well), being duped into a dead club where they were the only patrons, being ostracized by the hip crowd … and as with all coming of age movie they all learn and gain something at the end of the movie. In this case, each gained a girlfriend and learned something new.

The Inbetweeners is an award-winning British TV sitcom that got turned in to a movie this year. The motley crew of characters and gnarly non-RP British accent makes this an interesting movie different from the overdone American ones. The plot and issues remain the same – guys trying to get laid, guys acting stupid and guys being stupid. This movie is rated M18 for nudity and general crudeness. The narration is done by Will’s character (the nerdy one with glasses). The humour is just so right up my alley it cracked me up. But I guess this movie has humour that suits every palate – the wedgie-someone sort of humour as well as the pun sort of humour. It’s a great holiday laugh-out-loud movie.

By the way, Wikipedia gives a very detailed blow-by-blow description of the movie if you are interested in that sort of things.

Watch the trailer here:

(Image taken from Flicksandbits.com)

Contagion is a film about an epidemic, basically. It starts with an American woman bringing the highly deadly disease back from Hong Kong and spreading the disease – on the plane, to her son and his school, her town… in different corners of the world the disease spread like wildfire.

The premise is certainly not new, reminiscent of past epidemic movies like Outbreak. Comparing Contagion with the other epidemic films, it make seem lacking in action. What it seemingly lacks in action and excitement, it makes up with a star-studded cast – Lawrence Fishburne, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Matt Damon, Gwenyth Paltrow and even our own Ng Chin Han. (Frankly, the cast is what drew me to this movie.) The film, to me, projects a highly probable future for us; we are not far from a global pandemic. The film is down to earth in representing the probable and not the typical Hollywood dramatic. The character development is interesting at points and I liked the ending.

Haven’t gotten around to blogging about this, so here goes.

For the umpteenth time, I don’t get the title. Dark of the moon, seriously? Dark is not a noun and will never be. You might as well have said Slimy of the Moon, or Flat of the Moon. It just does not make any sense. Why couldn’t you have stuck with Dark Side of the Moon? What’s so difficult about that?

That said, this movie performs between ZOMG and FEH. ZOMG largely due to the plot and action. FEH largely due to the characters. Let’s talk about this new girlfriend. Throughout the entire show she was either a slut or a bitch; she has no real personality that makes us like her. And an impractical dresser. You get kidnapped by the villain as a trophy and you decide to wear a pair of black stiletto pumps? Seriously? Making the poor actress run around in stiletto pumps is a clear work hazard; I wonder how many pairs she broke and how many times she tripped unnecessarily. With her killer bod I’m sure she doesn’t require those heels to feel awesome. So save it, and save the feet of an actress.

I am mildly disappointed that Bumblebee isn’t given more airtime in this instalment. In fact all the autobots in this installment have no personality, unlike in the previous movies. Too much time was devoted to the action I suppose. And this is not a short movie by the way, at 157 minutes it’s considered a lengthy one. Nonetheless I enjoyed the action and sound effects and utter sense of awesomeness during the fight scenes. Those are the things definitely worth watching on a big screen.

I also uber loved how they mixed historical tapes with fictionalization in the prologue scenes; it’s daring and it worked. The conspiratorial undertone is plain awesome.

*Spoilers Alert!*

Synopsis: The second installment of the highly acclaimed Kung Fu Panda animated film starts with an introduction of a new nemesis, Lord Shen, voiced by Gary Oldman. Lord Shen, a peacock heir to the ruler of Gongmen city, has ambitions of the wrong kind, and in a prediction by the soothsayer, was said to lead to the downfall of China and can only be defeated by a warrior of black and white. In order to prevent this prophecy from coming to past, Lord Shen orders a mass killing of all pandas. His parents, for his own good, banishes him from city. The story arc in this second instalment follows how Lord Shen is back to snatch Gongmen city, and China for himself and to destroy kung fu once and for all using powerful canons. Po, with the Furious Five, must work together to stop his plans. Meanwhile, Po learns about his origins and rediscovers his relationship with Mr. Ping, his adoptive father.

Lord Shen is a decidedly almost albino peacock, with the agility and grace of a streamline bird. This character is designed well in terms of both aesthetics and psychology. Following most other modern day nemesis, Lord Shen has abandonment issues and irreparable psychological damage, coupled with his born propensity to destruct, making him a very convincing villain. Unlike Tai Lung in the Part 1, Lord Shen is significantly more plot time, which allowed him to exhibit a mildly funny side.

It seems that the other character that is highly acclaimed in this installment is Mr Ping, Po’s adoptive father (who is a goose, not a duck like I previously thought).

Mr Ping loves Po, with no doubt. Through both part 1 and part 2 we see his Mother Hen concern for Po, packing him travel bags, feeding him, fussing over him… the typical Asian parent. This Asian Parent aspect is played up when Po returns to the noodle shop for a visit and Mr Ping comments that he has lost weight and attempts to cook him food. We see how proud Mr Ping is of Po, the dragon warrior, but at the same time his sense of despair knowing each mission may kill him. In this installment we are treated to a flashback of how Mr Ping found infant Po, stashed in a radish box and decides to raise him as a son. This solves the mystery of how a goose can have a panda as a son. I also really liked how Mr Ping now sells noodles and tofu – those who watched Part 1, remember how he said he once wanted to run away from home to learn to make tofu, but never did because he was expected to make noodles? I gather that Po’s stubborn desire to learn kungfu has inspired Mr Ping to finally pick up making tofu. Nice.

I’m not sure how deliberate the reference is- but the panda massacre is reminiscent of the infanticide in the Moses story. And those old enough to recall, Prince of Egypt is Dreamworks’ first animation. Also, there’s a cart chasing scene through scaffolding that is almost identical to the scene in PoE involving Moses and Rameses.

My favourite scene was the costume dragon (monster?) scene, otherwise known as the Pacman scene. It was funny and effective, and a good balance between adult reference and children humour.  Kung Fu Panda 2 is definitely recommended for both children and adult.

This movie is a must-watch. I caught the 2D version. I have this itch to catch the 3D version now. :)

*Images taken from http://kungfupanda.wikia.com/wiki/Kung_Fu_Panda_Wiki

This is an atypical boy-meets-girl story; Joey and Gin both starred in a pro-marriage video by a networking company W.E.D. The tender sweet love portrayed in the video convinces everyone that Joey and Gin are a real-life couple, including Joey. Delusional, she starts to plan a wedding while stalking Gin. Little did she know, Gin is already engaged and will be having his own wedding soon. What will she do to thwart his relationship? Will he fall in love with crazy batty Joey? Is there a happily ever after?

*Spoiler Alert*

Thanks to Omy.sg, I attended a free screening of this local film by Wee Lilin, director of Gone Shopping in 2007. Forever stars Joanna Dong and Tzu-yi Mo (Candy Rain, 台北飘雪), with cameo appearances by Jo Tan, Ris Low and Dr K K Seet. The movie can be easily summed up in three words, courtesy of the young couple who sat next to me during the screening- WHAT. THE. FUCK. The character Joey is essentially made up of a sweet romantic girl, an eerie stalker, and a mentally disturbed patient.Her instability is the only constant in the film. I don’t understand what happened to Gin and why he did what he did at the end of the film. I don’t understand the need for a lot of plot devices. Apart for the occasionally funny bits, too many elements go unexplained, like how Gin escaped the freezer storage, what happened to Cecilia, how does W.E.D. even survive with that paltry membership… I’m tempted to call this movie absurd. There are too many stereotypes in this film and I ‘m not sure if she’s trying to subvert or endorse them.

On aesthetics, the film uses a lot of blues, particularly this shade of robin’s egg blue, or Tiffany’s blue, thereabout. To me, this shade connote indie-chic, which I’m not sure if the movie is trying to be. What I liked were the locations, especially this funky “Institute of Mental Wellness” building shown in the picture above. It’s very old school, and again, very Indie in that respect.

I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the film, but it leaves something to  be desired.

No Strings Attached is a romantic comedy set in Los Angeles exploring the relationship between the main characters Emma and Adam, played by Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. Emma is portrayed as a medicine intern afraid to fall in love, looking only for casual encounters and no strings attached arrangements. Adam recently fell out of love, and on his recuperative journey enters said arrangement with Emma, but as all Hollywood rom-coms has it; he falls in love with her, and she with him. The film revolves about how they answer to their feelings (or not). Clearly, a happily ever after ending is in order.

I had high expectations for this film, which failed to be fulfilled. I expected a cleaner emotionless set-up; but Adam is way too sappy from the beginning, lending a very unbalanced dynamic. Apart from the hot-guy-fucks-hot-girl stereotype, this film invokes other cultural stereotypes, such as better-than-thou Prius owners, hot chicks turned lesbians, Hollywood has-beens living off the profits from a TV show made more than 20 years ago… you get the idea. As a romantic comedy this is great; it has the requisite elements of everyone-around-you-knows-but-you, and the “you can’t choose who(m) you fall in love with”, as I quote from the film. It’s such unchanging constants in rom-coms that make us girls succumb time and again despite knowing it’s mostly bullshit.

But I had a good laugh; the jokes were dirty (trench buddies!) and the scenarios unpredictably dumb.

Synopsis: John Smith is not your ordinary teenager. An extra-terrestrial from the planet Lorien, he was one of the nine children saved from the annihilation of their enemies. Now their enemies have come to Earth and have started to hunt them down. Three are dead, John is number four.

*Spoiler alert*

Thanks to Nuffnang’s Twitter contest I won a pair of preview tickets to I am Number Four on Monday and dragged KL with me to the preview. Since it’s a world preview, Cathay made all of us surrender our mobile phones and electronics. Very disconcerting and unncessary since they already have securities crawling the theater looking out for LCD screens and whatnot.

The movie is your typical high school hero saviour movie. Coupled with a boy-meets-girl scenario that makes him a sappy human being. I am not sure how to make of Number 6, a girl, becoming pivotal in the final battle.  It feels a little too convenient, a cross between a Mary-Sue character and a deus ex machina.

Unsurprisingly, villains look like crap and dress in black. Despite both goodies and baddies being aliens, the goodies must look hot and popular while the villains look like the bastard children of sharks and humans. In my opinion, movie-goers today are perfectly capable of discerning the maleficent even if he dresses in white and is charming (think Satan from Constantin). Leave the dark brooding ugly stereotyping to cartoons.

There is quite a bit of running, leaping, semi-flying in the movie. They reek of Twilight to be honest. Together with the saving-the-damsel scenes, the movie made me cringe in horror. What happened to good ol’ action sci-fi without kissy-kissy and sappy-sappy? The last I need is some hormonal teenager developing photographs from film in a dark room in the middle of a final battle. (And subsequently turning on their power involving light and effectively exposing every friggin’ film in that darkroom.)

I’m tempted to say this movie is targetted at preteens. Ok, maybe teenagers. Adults, wait for it on HBO.

Synopsis: Ali (Christina Aguilera) leaves small-town Iowa to fulfill her performer dream in Los Angeles. She winds up at the Burlesque Lounge run by Tess (Cher). Ali begs her way to be put onstage and becomes an overnight sensation. Tess, in the meantime, faces a financial crisis and risks losing her club.

*Spoiler alert*

Someone on my Twitter said that Burlesque is just a glorified Christina Aguilera concert. I couldn’t agree more. This is the reason I don’t like musicals – song and dance is nothing short of gratuitous. To showcase her singing talent for plot requirements, yes. But to put in studio recorded track at every opportunity where plot transition turns weird – no. I wasn’t awed by the performance of either stars, I’m sorry. They both need acting classes, or less botox. I can’t decide which. To call their facial expressions “expressions” is pushing it. As for witty dialogue – it was all exhausted in the trailer. Everything else was plain blah. The only thing I can’t criticize is the plot – how worse can such overwrought small-towner-turned-big-star storylines get? It’s as bad as I expected, so that’s that.

One other thing that confused me greatly in the show was Christina’s boob size. At times she looks matronly (aka hugely droopy), at time she looks like a Victoria’s Secret model (aka decked high and fake), and at time she looks like an average-sized woman. Wardrobe mishap, I suppose? Too confusing, too distracting I tell ya. Choose one look and stick with it, really.

]]> http://lovelyloey.me/burlesque/feed/ 0 http://lovelyloey.me/black-swan/ http://lovelyloey.me/black-swan/#comments Tue, 08 Feb 2011 07:27:43 +0000 lovelyloey http://lovelyloey.me/?p=4485

*SPOILER ALERT*

Synopsis: Nina, the newly selected Swan Queen will play both the White Swan and Black Swan in Swan Lake. Encouraged to let loose her inhibitions, Nina explores a world beyond the pink fluffy shelter her obsessive mother has built for her. In the process of letting loose she loses herself and take on the role of the Black Swan in her life. This film explores the psyche of a ballerina grappling life, stage and the in-between.

I have to admit this – I squealed like a teenage girl each time finger/fingernail scenes came on. There’s something about watching someone peel off their own skin that makes MY skin crawl- I can fully empathize that sensation. And then there’s the fingernail trimming mishap that again, is a sensation fully accessible to me. To us, this film watched like a horror flick, only more real.

By the end of the film I am not sure what is the message – to resist a regimented sheltered existence or to resist letting loose all inhibition? Which is it that killed her eventually? I’m not sure. I think for the purpose of my own sanity I’ll blame it on the mother – a failed ballerina leaving her dream vicariously through her daughter. That eventually drove Nina crazy. So the moral of the story is – never be what your parents strongly want you to be. Being human, they are capable of being selfish. You never really know.

Natalie Portman’s acting, as usual, is spectacular. (And her cum face is absolutely beautiful.) Though I found it quite a joke that her character, Nina, stole things from Winona Ryder’s character.

Overall, this is a film worth watching. Be sure not to squeal too loudly though.

]]> http://lovelyloey.me/black-swan/feed/ 0 http://lovelyloey.me/the-infidel/ http://lovelyloey.me/the-infidel/#comments Fri, 24 Sep 2010 14:34:26 +0000 lovelyloey http://lovelyloey.me/?p=3845

Mahmood, a middle-age Muslim man in Britain, following his mother’s death, found out he was adopted from Jewish birth parents. He hunts down his birth father, only to be denied a meeting because he was not Jew enough. In order to secure this meeting with his birth father, Mahmood sets out on a journey to discover his Jewish roots. To make matters worse, his son is in love with the step-daughter of a Palestinian Muslim extremist, whom he has to please by pretending to be a devout Muslim himself. How does a man have two religion? What will happen when the truth spills?  This comedy is rated M18 for controversial religious content.

The film explores and subvert issues of religion stereotyping. Mahmood, at the beginning of his reckoning, expressed fears and his prejudice of Jewish people. The typical imagery and mention of bagels, hypercondriacs, big noses and wealth, among other misguided culture identifiers dominated the film. This is why I think the film demands an M18 rating – younger audience may not enough awareness that by raising these stereotypes we are questioning their validity. I mean, younger audience are idiots, right? And when anyone above the age of 18 laugh at these scenes, they necessarily know it’s the ludicrous nature of these stereotypes, and not the comic value in them. Well, that’s at least the impression I get from such a rating schema.

I liked the way the film expounded on the conflict Mahmood was caught in, and in a grander scheme, how two religion sharing similar roots (Judaism and Islam) can, after millennia, turn out to be so different and having deep animosity towards each other. However, I found the resolution of the affair rather unsatisfactory. Perhaps I conceived this first as a religion-themed film over a comedy. It is after all, the story of a man caught in two cultures. In light of that I thought the film to be entertaining.