Avatar

I previously stated that the film '2012' could walk away with the best special effects Oscar for 2009. Boy was I wrong. Talk about speaking too soon. I totally forgot that this movie was still coming out.

Avatar marks James Cameron first film since he made Titanic a year ago. I always thought he wasn't actively making films anymore since he became bloody rich after Titanic. And that the pressure of topping the number one box office hit of all time was just too much. As it turns out, he was just taking his time and working on this film.

I was totally blown away by this film. We watched it on IMAX. And it was worth it. This is an awesome movie. James Cameron, doing what he does best. Using special effects as a tool and not as a gimmick. When you see the Navi. It would never cross your mind that they are just Computer Generated images. They look so life like. Plus the story is just amazing. The moment the movie starts you'll instantly find yourself in another world.

The movie is 3 hours long. But there are only a few times when you'll notice this. Most of the time, you just can't get enough and would want more.

I'm positive that this will be one of the 10 movies to be nominated for Best Picture during the Oscars. I'm a bit sad, because there goes 'District 9' & 'Star Trek' chances of nabbing a nomination. I don't think they'll allow more than one sci-fi movie among the nominees. But then, Avatar is a truly remarkable film. I think it should win the Best Picture race. The chances of a sci-fi film winning is rather slim though. But I'm still hopeful.

Inglourious Basterds

After months of waiting for this film to be released. We finally got to watch it last night. It was exclusively showing in Robinsons cinemas. A big "THANK YOU" to Robinsons Cinemas for allowing us to watch the film without cuts.

The film focuses on two plots to assasinate Adolf Hitler who's attending a premiere in a French Cinema. Both plots aren't related to one another. And the fact that they both end up in the French Cinema is purely coincidental. Though set in World War II. This isn't really a typical war film. As Tarantino describes it, it's a spaghetti western set during the war.

You may think that this movie is filled with a lot of action and violence. But there actually only a few minutes of action in the film. Those few minutes are of course awesome. But the movies strength lies more with the script and the interesting characters.

In a Tarantino film, no character is too small. It's amazing how he can show a character only a few minutes. But you'll end up remembering them for a long time. And there are a lot of memorable minor characters here. Such as Stiglitz, the German officer who finds thrills in killing other German officers. Lt, Archie Hicox, a British officer and former film critic who finds himself in a stand off against Major Hellstrom. Major Hellstrom himself is also another memorable character.

Mike Meyers appears briefly in the film as a British soldier. When I heard he was going to appear in the film. I really couldn't picture how he would fare. Mike Meyers in a Tarantino film doesn't seem to mix. But in the end, I think he did rather well.

The most memorable small character in this film would be that played by Eli Roth. The Bear Jew. I think he has one of the coolest character introduction of all time. He's in a tunnel and all you can hear is a baseball bat banging on the wall. The bang gets louder and louder as he comes closer. And when he finally emerges from the tunnel, he is all so sinister and blood thirsty. Though the thought of him bashing someones brain out is rather appalling. You're a little bit excited to see him do it.

The major characters in the film are amazing as well. French actress Melanie Laurent plays the part of Shosanna, a jew who was able to escape from the massacre of her entire family. She now owns a small theater and is presented with an opportunity to avenge her family's death and wipe out all the Nazi head officers.

Brad Pitt is the main star of this film. He plays Lt. Aldo Raine, the leader of the Basterds. Though it seems his screen time is a tad short for a lead. His few min on screen are just pleasant. Pitt has mastered speaking in hilarious southern accent. He speaks it so well that he still has it when he tries to speak Italian. It's one of my favorite scenes in the movie.

Christopher Waltz is labeled as a supporting actor. But he shines the most in this film. His performance gives us a classic villain. One for the ages. SS Officer Hans Landa, is a ruthless and highly intelligent officer. Scenes where he appears can drive chills to your spine for fear of what he may do. But the beauty in Waltz' performance is that he played Landa as a complete gentleman. In scenes where he appears, Landa is mostly gracious, polite and articulate. The fact that Waltz can play someone to be so charming and yet frightening is just brilliant. I think he'll definitely walk away with the Best Supporting Actor award during the Oscars.

Tarantino has a bizarre and unique way in making movies. His style of film is unique to him and I don't think can be imitated by anyone. I know some have tried and none have come close. Only he can end his movie with a rewrite in history and still pull it off. With Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino gives us his best work. The last line spoken by Aldo Raine in the movie accurately describes what the film is. It is his masterpiece.

New Moon

Here now is the second installment to the hugely popular Twilight saga. I have not read any of the books. And up until this movie, I had no intentions of reading it at all. Now I'm considering it. I didn't read any of the books so that I wouldn't feel disappointed with the movie. As with most movie adaptations of novels. The book is often better than the movie.

This movie somehow sparked my interest more in the saga. The first movie focused on Bella Swan and her relationship with hot vampire Edward Cullen and his vampire family. This movie expands our knowledge of the Twilight universe by focusing on werewolf Jacob Black and and his clan. Or should I say pack of wolves. Other than that, this movie also introduces us to the Volturi. They are the the leaders of the vampire race who are very fierce and very powerful.


This movie showed me why the books are very popular. The premise is quite interesting. And something to look forward to. At the end of the film, I actually wanted to know what happens next.

Though the story is nice and all. The dialogue isn't quite good. I know this isn't suppose to be Shakespeare or anything. But the conversations seemed rather plain to me. Plus the acting wasn't the best either. The young stars Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner have a lot of potential. But they still have a lot of growing to do in terms of acting. They should take the opportunity to learn from they're veteran co-stars Michael Sheen and, agree with me or not, Dakota Fanning. Among the young and relatively new cast however. One seems to shine in this film. Ashley Green has done a terrific job playing Alice. Her character is now one of the most interesting characters of this series.

From what I've heard. The book was rather boring. So I have to give credit to the filmmakers for making this movie exciting. Though a lot of improvements still need to be made. This movie has already greatly improved from the first one. And somehow, I have a feeling that the next movie would definitely be better than this one. Indeed the Twilight series is a very exciting saga to follow. It has made a follower out of me.

2012

From the director of Independence Day, Godzilla and The Day After Tomorrow. Roland Emmerich gives us another film where he destroys the world in spectacular fashion. How does he destroy the world this time? Well, the world ends due to a massive solar flare caused by planet alignment, which in turn heats the earths core and causing crust displacement. This is supposedly has happened billions of years ago and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. The ancient Mayans have predicted that it will happen again in the year 2012. I must say, I found this theory interesting and cool. And the movie did an excellent job of explaining it.

Though Roland Emmerich has proven that he's the best when it comes to the apocalypse. His act for story telling seems to have taken a step in the wrong direction. The movie feels like it tries too hard to find an excuse to be able to show you visually stunning sequence. But I think that was the intention all along. The film makers didn't set out to make a great film. I think they're goal was to give the audience a visual effects extravaganza. Which they did successfully. It's still to early to say. But I think this film will bag the visual effects & best sound editing Oscars next year. The special effects, regardless of what silly excuse they thought of to show you this, is a lot of fun & worth seeing.

This movie also features a terrific cast. I think the director has a talent for is choosing the right actors to star in his film. This film stars John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Woody Harrelson, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton, Jimi Mistry & Danny Glover. All pretty likable and talented actors. It's nice to see them in this type of film. And though some may disagree, I think they gave good performances and turned the characters they portray to be interesting ones.

To sum it up. This film is alright. It's a lot of fun as long as you don't pay too much attention to the plot.

Julie & Julia

Julie Powell(Amy Adams) is an aspiring writer who never caught a break. And thus she works as a call center customer care person for an insurance company. Not a pleasant job since you're getting nothing but complaints the whole day. At the end of a stressful day, she finds comfort in cooking. One day she decides to try cook every recipe written in the famous cook book 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' by Julia Child(Meryl Streep), and write a blog about it.

As we watch Julie go through every recipe, the movie also shows us the life of Julia Child when she was still living in Paris. A time when she was still learning to cook and beginning to write her cook book.

Though Julie & Julia live decades apart. They somewhat lived similar lives, and both found joy in cooking.

A lot of people may be able to relate to this movie. If you're the type who's stuck in a job that you do because you need to do it and not because you love it. And what thrills you in life are the stuff that you do when we get out of the office. Such us eat, cook, sports, movies, photography etc. Then this movie is for you.

If you can't relate to this movie. Well that's OK. It's is still worth seeing. The story, other than being true, is both inspiring and entertaining. The acting is of course top notch. Plus the food is just mouthwatering. After seeing this movie you may want eat up a feast and even want to learn how to cook. Brace yourselves. Diet's will be broken. I know mine was. :D

Red Cliff

I've been waiting for almost a year for this movie to be released here. And last night, I finally got to watch it.

It's a film about the battle of Red Cliff which occurred during the period of the Three Kingdoms in China. This period was the bloodiest period in the history of China.

Why am I so excited about a movie about this?

Well to begin with. This is the most expensive movie ever produced by China. And the most successful too. It beat Titanic as the highest grossing film in China.

Second, it features some of Asia's finest and brightest actors like Tony Leung(Lust, Caution), Takeshi Kaneshiro(House of Flying Daggers) and Zhao Wei(So Close).


And to top it off. This film is directed by John Woo. Bloody era plus masterful action director, equals a bloody historic action epic!

Well at least that's what I was expecting.

Red Cliff was originally released in China as two movies. Each with a length of about two hours. For the international audience, the two films where combined and about 90 minutes was trimmed off to form just one movie. And this is the version that we got to see.

I was dismayed a few minutes into the film. As it turns out. This version is dubbed in English. And the dubbing wasn't of good quality. Regardless of that, the film still turned out to be alright. It redeemed itself with the battle scenes. John Woo showing us why he one of the best action director in the world. He was able to show us the battle techniques and formations used in those days and still made it look cool.

This is not the best version of this film. But that says a lot. If a downgraded version of this movie came out rather good. Then just imagine just how much better the original version could be. I'm excited to find out.

The Young Victoria

Cza and I we're walking around Greenbelt 3 and stumbled upon Young Victoria which was exclusively showing there. I've always wanted to see a movie about Queen Victoria. So yeah, I asked Cza if we could watch, and I'm so glad she said yes.

I saw a trailer for this film about a week before and wasn't totally excited with seeing Emily Blunt in the title role. Don't get me wrong. I think she has a lot of talent. But playing a Queen, I had my doubts.

As we watched the movie, Emily Blunt proved me wrong. She pulled it off quite nicely. She played the young Queen as being fragile and like your typical teenage girl. But when the time came for her to be strong, she was.

This movie is a bit like Elizabeth. It's a movie about a young lady who ascends to the throne. Except that this one is a rather teen flick version of that film. As the title states, this is a movie about the Young Victoria. The film does focus Victoria's life and struggles before, during and after her coronation. But it also primarily focuses on her romance with Prince Albert, who was played excellently by Rupert Friend. In this movie, Prince Albert is a rather shy and lost for words kind of fellow. But eventually wins the heart of Victoria, finds his voice, and becoming the perfect match for Victoria in ruling the kingdom.

Queen Victoria's life is already a fascinating read in wikipedia. And this movie is about 90% accurate in depiction. So to put it quite simply, this movie is fascinating.