What Movies or Shows Have You Seen Recently?

[westendboy]

It’s Friday at the movies with Daniel….

From the minds behind Searching (2018) comes Missing (2023), a thrilling roller-coaster mystery that makes you wonder how well you know those closest to you. When her mother (Nia Long) disappears while on vacation in Colombia with her new boyfriend, June’s (Storm Reid) search for answers is hindered by international red tape. Stuck thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, June creatively uses all the latest technology at her fingertips to try to find her before it’s too late. But, as she digs deeper, her digital sleuthing raises more questions than answers… and when June unravels secrets about her mom, she discovers that she never really knew her at all. I thought Searching was a one trick pony and I was wrong. There’s still more creative ways to tell a story. This time is not just through social media, but gmail accounts, company websites and phone apps. This movie has no link to Searching but it cleverly exploits new online tools to solve a mystery. It might not have an actor with the gravitas of John Cho to anchor it, but it does have a new set of toys to go wild with. It moves at a propulsive pace and gives you not much time to think about some of the impossible situations but who cares when it is so entertaining. One thing I have learned through watching this is that in this time and age being invisible in the virtual world is next to impossible and I better change my password from ChooisdaBest88 to something else. (3.5/5)

Plane (2023), Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) saves his passengers from a lightning strike by making a risky landing on a war-torn island – only to find that surviving the landing was just the beginning. When most of the passengers are taken hostage by dangerous rebels, the only person Torrance can count on for help is Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), an accused murderer who was being transported by the FBI. In order to rescue the passengers, Torrance will need Gaspare’s help, and will learn there’s more to Gaspare than meets the eye. Hollywood always makes these type of B-grade actioner but they seldom ever get it right like Plane. This one is just fun the moment the plane takes off till it lands and I will tell you they stick the crazy landing. There is none of that nauseous shaky cams cinematography and the violence comes ready to maim and kill. I got a shock when Colter swings a sledgehammer into the face of a scumbag, but shock soon turned to raved applause. Why would bad guys go quietly into the night? They should leave screaming their lungs out and in an explosion of blood and viscera. This one isn’t going to win any awards but it will take a lean and mean 107 minutes from you and you would feel it’s time well-spent. I thought the ending leaves a door slightly ajar for a sequel, Choo and I had a fun time thinking up good titles. I blurted out “Submarine” but then I recalled Butler had already starred in a submarine flick. Then Choo uttered “Train”… ah, that has a good ring to it. (3.5/5)

Scream 6 (2023), following the latest Ghostface killings, the four survivors leave Woodsboro behind and start a fresh chapter. Sam (Melissa Barrera), Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown), Chad (Mason Gooding), Tara (Jenna Ortega), Kirby (Hayden Panettiere) and Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) return to their roles in the franchise to a new location – New York and with that comes new rules. I seriously thought the franchise would succumb to staleness after the first sequel but it continues to surprise me. I wouldn’t say the sequels beyond the first one are essential at all but they are so much fun if you have been following the movies (I have never seen the TV series). This one has brilliant nods to the original movies, forges a bloody new path with a cool play on the rules of franchises. This has a vibe of sheer lunacy that had me punching the air in glee. A sequel to a re-quel with enough smarts and creative kills, count me in for the next bloodbath. (3.5/5)

On to more serious movies…

Living (2022), overwhelmed at work and lonely at home, council bureaucrat Mr Williams’ (a fabulous Bill Nighy) life takes a heartbreaking turn when a medical diagnosis tells him his time is short. Influenced by a local decadent and a vibrant woman, he continues to search for meaning until a simple revelation gives him a purpose to create a legacy for the next generation. The screenplay is by Kazuo Ishiguro and coupled with a stately performance by Nighy, this is a very life-affirming watching experience. The pace is painterly and sticks very closely to Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru (1952) with some interesting detours in how it skewers the red-tape of bureaucracy. It is also a cautionary tale in that you and I should not wait for a wake-up by the doctor to do something worthy with the life we are graced with. In the end, for Mr Williams, it is the construction of a playground in a troubled neighbourhood that becomes his legacy. If this movie doesn’t make you ponder your legacy you might need help. I like the movie a lot but it just cannot compare to Kurosawa’s Ikiru. There are scenes in Kurosawa’s masterpiece that are seared into my brain: the image of the old man sitting on a swing while the snow falls all around him and the birthday song being sung in a restaurant with the old man actually thinking the song is for him and that day was the first day of the rest of his life. If you have a chance, go see Ikiru and then seek Living out for a scholarly comparison exercise. (4/5)

Benny’s Video (1992) is about a 14-year-old video enthusiast who is obsessed with violent films. He decides to make one of his own and shows it to his parents with tragic results. This is an early film by agent provocateur Michael Haneke and I find it utterly engrossing. I pressed play during lunch time thinking I will just watch an hour but I ended up watching all the way to the devastating end. Haneke presses all the alarm buttons and how he comments gravely on the state of senseless violence on screen in these present times is spot-on. If you are not careful, by allowing your child to watch mindless violent movies you are helping to create a monster or least a young person with the wrong perception on violence. That one murderous act the boy commits gave me cold chills and how his face has not a smidgen of emotion is spine-chilling. If you are a parent and you see your kid locked up in the room, you should go find out what he or she is interested in before it’s too late. This is not a comfortable watch and not something you watch while munching popcorn. (3.5/5)

Monster (2023), we saw last night at the cinema. We never miss a Hirokazu Kore-eda movie. A suburban town with a large lake. A single mother who loves her son, a school teacher who cares about her students, and innocent children lead a peaceful life. One day, a fight breaks out at school. It looked like a common fight between children, but their claims differed, and it gradually developed into a big deal involving society and the media. Then one stormy morning, the children suddenly disappear. I wanted to love this and in the end I am not sure if I even like it. This is Kore-eda directing a story and screenplay that is not written by him, something he has not done since Maborosi (1995). It is not the typical Kore-eda treatise on the family unity, but a complex look at grief, parenting and coming out. I enjoyed the refreshing exercise with the narrative structure – you will see three perspectives on the incident and what happens after that, of which I feel the third one from the kids’ point of view is the most powerful. I do understand that for this third act to work, we have to sit through 2 blander perspectives. It goes to show we can’t know everything through just our own perspective. When all the pieces eventually fit together it is quite a class act but still the earlier opacity already did the movie in. I applaud Kore-eda to try something different with the storytelling, but here’s hoping he gets back to what he does best. That said, I hold Kore-eda to high standards and Monster is still better than a lot of dramas out there by a country mile. (3.5/5)

[westendboy]

It’s Friday at the movies with Daniel…

Couldn’t do 6 this week. I did watch more than that but there are nothing worth writing about except these 4. First off is a Ma Dong-seok (Don Lee) double-bill…

The Roundup: The Way Out (2023) is the second sequel to a successful Korean franchise. I saw the first two on DVD and they are tremendously entertaining. They don’t take the action genre to new places, but the movies worked because of the affable charm of Don Lee and they are the perfect blend of rib-tickling comedy and rip-roaring action. Seven years after the roundup in Vietnam, Ma Seok-do joins a new squad to investigate a murder case. He soon starts to dig deeper when he finds out the case involves a synthetic drug and a gang of thugs. The subtitle of “The Way Out” is referring to the scumbags, not Seok-do whose massive fists always find a way out of any difficult situation. I find this second sequel a few steps back from the inventiveness of the first sequel. The story and plot play like a straight arrow, but really… no one watches these movies for Oscar worthy storytelling. Everyone is just looking forward to see Don Lee smash, pile-drive and punch myriad of gangsters who don’t know better. What I loved about this installment is the comedy element which is up-sized from parts one and two combined. The laughs come fast and furious, and there is one particular running gag that was just tummy-clutchingly good. The first time we laughed, the second time we laughed a little louder and by the time the third time was coming Choo and I and all the audiences were laughing before the scene even dropped. You will know what the gag is if you see it. Hang back for an end-credit sequence which features a character from the first movie. Yes, Ma Seok-do will be back to make criminals’ lives a living hell next year. Sign us up! (3/5)

Last Friday evening, we met up with some friends for dinner and there was a new friend in the mix who loves movies like me. We got to talking about our favourite subject and it somehow went on to Don Lee. He told me he watch Squad 38, a K-drama 5 times! Who watches a TV show 5 times! Nobody I knew of till that evening. So over the weekend we cued up Squad 38for a watch and we couldn’t stop.

Squad 38 (2016), the task force chief, Baek Song-il (Don Lee), of Seoul City Hall and a con man, Yang Jung-do (Seo In-guk), work together to collect taxes from those who avoid paying their taxes. This is really fun to watch and the pace is brisk. The twists and turns keep coming, but the two leads’ chemistry is so infectious I don’t try to scrutinise the ludicrousness of the plot. Basically, they con these massive tax evaders till they willingly pay the money. I love this crime sub-genre of the big con. There are many elements that need to be in place for the narrative to work: the team members all need to bring a special skill to the table, the leader has to be charismatic, the plan is dependent on many inter-locking details that spell impossible and the villain is one you would want to personally climb through the screen to bash him up. Squad 38 has all these in spades. There are also many instances of double- crossing and even triple-crossings and the plot is always complex, yet it is always easy to follow the labyrinthine plot and never fall out of the story. We are not done yet and still have 3 and a half episodes to go, but we can already see how all the threads will be tied up but mind you it doesn’t take away any joy of seeing them. Choo is very excited and I calculated if we start at 7pm we will be done by 10.30pm tonight. I am already counting the minutes till she is back. (3.5/5)

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), finding himself in a new era, approaching retirement, Indy wrestles with fitting into a world that seems to have outgrown him. But as the tentacles of an all-too-familiar evil return in the form of an old rival, Indy must don his hat and pick up his whip once more to make sure an ancient and powerful artifact doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. I will keep this simple, as long as you don’t harbour any inkling that this fifth and probably final installment betters the first three films you will be fine. James Mangold is definitely a great choice as a director of this franchise and he replicates all the nods and cinematic sweep of Spielberg in telling a story that has so many nods to the original films. That said, it keeps it very safe, perhaps too safe, till the point it becomes a tick-the-boxes exercise. Nazis, check. Creatures, check. Insects, check. Car chases, check. Flight denoted in red dotted lines, check. Fisticuffs, check and so on. There is a fresh attempt at some ingenuity in storytelling in the last act but it involves a very unscientific tact that frankly made the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull the bane of the franchise. I will let you decide if it works for you or leaves a bad taste in your mouth, but for me it is something I could get behind. Noticed I said nothing about Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s character? I don’t know… other than changing the energy of the movie, I won’t say she added much to the proceedings except as a foil to Indy. At one point, I turned to Choo during the third act and whispered: “I think the director forgot Indy is shot in the chest”. It went like that for a long while, then the director suddenly remembers Indy was shot in the chest. Well… I will always have the first three movies. I do hope this is the last we see of Indy and taken on its own this is a great sendoff to a wonderful character who has brought so much joy to cinema audiences especially with so many old characters back for a swan song. (3/5)

Babylon (2022), I missed at the cinema last year and I probably did that intentionally because it’s a 3-hour movie. Somehow, being older, three hours in a cinema seat isn’t enticing anymore. In my home theatre, it is a different story. This is a tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood. I love the opening scene that immediately guides the audience on what they will expect – debauchery dialled up to the max. The movie barely comes up for a breath and relentless in the way it jackhammers in the excess. This is always going to be a divisive movie and I doubt anyone will sit on the fence with this one – you are either going to love it or hate it. Choo is the latter, but I found it absorbing and didn’t feel the punishing 3-hour runtime. I can see Damien Chazelle’s ambition and I appreciate how he threw caution to the wind with this movie that has unlikable characters in unflattering situations. I couldn’t tear my eyes (and senses) from the experience. It’s like watching an unfolding massive ten-car pile-up. (3.5/5)

[desray]

@westendboy

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), finding himself in a new era, approaching retirement, Indy wrestles with fitting into a world that seems to have outgrown him. But as the tentacles of an all-too-familiar evil return in the form of an old rival, Indy must don his hat and pick up his whip once more to make sure an ancient and powerful artifact doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. I will keep this simple, as long as you don’t harbour any inkling that this fifth and probably final installment betters the first three films you will be fine. James Mangold is definitely a great choice as a director of this franchise and he replicates all the nods and cinematic sweep of Spielberg in telling a story that has so many nods to the original films. That said, it keeps it very safe, perhaps too safe, till the point it becomes a tick-the-boxes exercise. Nazis, check. Creatures, check. Insects, check. Car chases, check. Flight denoted in red dotted lines, check. Fisticuffs, check and so on. There is a fresh attempt at some ingenuity in storytelling in the last act but it involves a very unscientific tact that frankly made the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull the bane of the franchise. I will let you decide if it works for you or leaves a bad taste in your mouth, but for me it is something I could get behind. Noticed I said nothing about Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s character? I don’t know… other than changing the energy of the movie, I won’t say she added much to the proceedings except as a foil to Indy. At one point, I turned to Choo during the third act and whispered: “I think the director forgot Indy is shot in the chest”. It went like that for a long while, then the director suddenly remembers Indy was shot in the chest. Well… I will always have the first three movies. I do hope this is the last we see of Indy and taken on its own this is a great sendoff to a wonderful character who has brought so much joy to cinema audiences especially with so many old characters back for a swan song. (3/5)

Exact sentiments as me after watching this. I guess there is only so much a good Director can do for a dying franchise that no one ask for. It is like Star wars and Jurassic Park… a strong IP and studios kept going back to prequels and/or sequels but it can never capture the original essence and spirit of the originals. Harrison Ford should have said no to Crystal Skulls. Its painful to watch my hero struggling with arthritis and doing action in his eighties. Just like Arnold new series, Fubar. Omg, it unbearable and borderline comical to watch. These action stars of my time should really retire.

[durian]

Fubar still have next season…
Will watch because of Monica…

[desray]

Omg…

[GundamUnicorn]

Stallone one was good

[westendboy]

It’s Friday at the movies with Daniel… just 4 this week I will say something about. Originally, I wanted to write a right proper review of Mission: Impossible but I can’t find the time so a quick stream-of-consciousness punch-out will suffice…

When the trailer for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One dropped a few months ago, it put me in a frenzy. Suddenly I wanted time to move faster just so I can watch the movie and see Tom Cruise run. Yes, he does, more than once here and it is a good reminder to myself that I need to keep in shape and be like him when I hit 61. Let that number sink in. Cruise doesn’t let CGI de-age him; he doesn’t rely on stunt-men to do the death-defying stunts for him. So that’s him flying off a cliff, tumbling in a careening car and going mano a mano against a villain on top of a speeding train. Cruise is practically a brand name when it comes to action thrillers and he ushers in blockbuster season. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is a superb entry into the franchise. It might not be the best but it’s in the top tier for sure. There is meticulousness in how this story is crafted in that it is against a prescient force. I don’t know about you but whenever I hear about what A.I. is capable of now, it sends a shiver down my spine. Haven’t the world heard of Skynet? The villain, Gabriel, is not only a proxy of The Entity but also a figure from Ethan Hunt’s past, which is showcased in a black and white flashback that bings Casino Royale (2006) vibes. The script is serious but also witty and the gang is all back for one last hurrah, but not all will survive. It isn’t an origin story but it does have shades of it when Hunt talks about making the choice in the past. There is also a nice trick in linking this instalment to Brian De Palma’s Mission: Impossible (1996) by having Kittridge back. If this nod to the first movie is not strong enough, Dead Reckoning Part One even redeploys some of the off-kilter camera angles to great effect. The attention to details by linking back to the first is a brilliant move. I have a feeling this is the beginning of the end and everything will come full circle. There are new characters added in Gabriel’s henchman Paris who suffers from the typical silent Asian syndrome and Hayley Atwell’s Grace, a master pickpocket among other skillsets. Grace is a character that I grew to like but I didn’t at first because she is an enigma initially and feels like a plot-mover. If the woman had believed in Hunt from the start, we wouldn’t be graced with two or three amazing action set-pieces, so I should be grateful she is a cipher. However near the end I really got behind her character and their chemistry is fiery. I don’t remember much of the dialogue except one: Grace asks Hunt if he will save her and Hunt looks deep her eyes and replies “I can’t promise you that but I can promise you that your life is worth more than mine”. Oh man… I had goosebumps all over and Hunt would prove that statement in a resounding manner. The stakes feel real here, more than all the superhero movies combined. When Hunt gets hurt, I felt blue-blacks on my skin. My wifey did have a problem with the clunky dialogue, but not me. It’s yet again a MacGuffin story and bad guys announce all their badass plan in painstaking details to Hunt (and us), but I took it all in as part of the fun. Notice I made no mention of the action set-pieces? They are breathtaking. I am sure as action junkies you have seen a motorcycle jumping from a cliff, manic car chases and a get-out-from-a-falling-train (I recently saw Wanted (2008) and it has the same scene) sequence, but the skill of a good filmmaker is to show the scenes in a refreshing manner till the point you think you have never seen them before. Get ready to have your breath taken from you while you sit in stunned silence in a theatre, preferable an IMAX cinema. I felt nothing of the 2h 43min and I sat there wide-eyed hoping that a year passes as quickly as possible. (4/5)

Cocaine Bear (2023) is literally about a bear who did cocaine and goes on a rampage. If entertainment is a dial that goes from one to ten, this one goes to eleven. It is dumb as much as it is fun. I laughed so hard when I saw humans get mauled with their guts are hanging out. The CGI bear looks cheap which actually adds to the charm. Forget about any life or moral lessons here, if there’s one it’s don’t do drugs and this warning also goes to animals. I have a strong feeling this will be acquired by Netflix soon enough. It fits their mantra – nothing too cerebral, maximum fun and goes well with a six-pack. (3.5/5)

The whole of last week, most Singaporeans would no doubt be on one singular topic – Taylor Swift. How our lives’ purpose and moods hinge on whether we get tickets to probably the biggest gig next year is both admirable and also laughable. Prime’s Swarm (2023) taps into this manic fan craze for an idol. Our tour guide to this surreal state of crazed behaviour is Dre (fabulously played by Dominique Fishback) who idolises pop star Ni’Jah. Substitute Ni’Jah with Beyoncé you get what the narrative is gunning for. It’s horror, comedy, a menagerie of murderous behaviour and a bombardment of themes like cancel culture and mental well-being. Across 7 half-hour episodes, the show does time jumps on a wimp making the audience do a lot of homework. I didn’t find it frustrating and find myself willingly fall under its spell, allowing the narrative to take me on a wild trip. I can’t say enough of Fishback’s stupendous performance which reflects everything about a crazed fan. This is a calling card performance and she embodies the role with her entire being. There’s also something unpredictable about the story and it dares to take risks. Watch out for the centrepiece episode that features Billie Eilish who does a memorable job as a sort of cult leader and also an unusual standalone episode about a detective. But I must say Choo hated the ending and cried BS. I didn’t have the same feeling but I do feel there’s more story to be told and the ending isn’t conclusive. To me, this isn’t the type of show that is defined by its enigmatic ending. More than anything the surreal ending made me think about Dre, her plight and how I am at times like a fraction of her. If there’s a warning to be had here is that next time when someone asks you who your favourite singer is, perhaps asks the question back and don’t say anything disparaging about his or her music taste. I think just say Taylor Swift. I don’t think you can go wrong with that, unless the other person is a rabid Beyoncé fan. (4/5)

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (2023) follows the life of beloved actor and advocate Michael J. Fox, exploring his personal and professional triumphs and travails, and what happens when an incurable optimist confronts an incurable disease. I was into the movies and shows when Michael J. Fox became a household name and this documentary fills in the gaps when he went off the radar for me. It is honest, heartfelt and funny in the way Fox talks about his life journey and struggle in such candid way, warts and all. The documentary cleverly uses clips from his appearances in movies and shows to emphasise what he is saying and the clips come across as strangely celebratory. There are scenes that can pull at the heartstrings but the storyteller always pulls the reins back because that isn’t what the documentary is aiming for. In fact, Fox at one point says point blank how he hates it when people feel sorry for him. The documentary comes across as very life-affirming and celebratory of the indelible human spirit. It brought to mind the line from The Shawshank Redemption (1994): “I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really, get busy living or get busy dying.” It’s on AppleTV+ and in my book it is a beautiful watch. (4/5)

[petetherock]

Lovely reviews again
Will you considering watch the Apple TV series “Slow Horses”, it’s got a “Night Manager” kind of feel mixed with a “Smiley’s People” slow burn excitement…

[westendboy]

Seen and wrote something about S1 and S2 already. All in this thread

[petetherock]

Thank you for the reviews, they are better than professional ones.
The Brits have a knack of making dialogue as exciting as action and had me hooked and hungrily anticipating the next episode. I had to force myself to space it out to prolong the enjoyment.

[westendboy]

If you have plans to see Oppenheimer, I would suggest skipping what I wrote for it.

Oppenheimer (2023) is Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus but I am wary of recommending to the everyday person. In my book, there is not an ounce of entertainment to be had (for that, you should see Barbie). It is certainly not something you can munch on popcorn while watching. This is a brilliant and singular character study of man’s hubristic nature and an examination of Satan’s favourite sin, vanity, according to the one in The Devil’s Advocate (1997). It’s a full-on assault on the senses by a filmmaker who at this stage of his career doesn’t pander to the audience anymore and is ever mindful of the cinematic experience. This needs to be experienced on the biggest screen possible. It’s a biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atom bomb, but Nolan has rewritten the genre of biopic here on so many levels. Going into the theatre I would hate it if it’s the typical “America is the world’s big brother” type of narrative and thankfully the focus is very different. Our tour guide into the fractured and tortured soul is one J. Robert Oppenheimer, superbly brought to life by Cillian Murphy. We get to listen him talk, listen to how he reacts and we get to see his thoughts. Yes, there is a lot of talking here. In fact, other than the centre-piece of the atom bomb explosion I don’t remember a prolonged period of silence. If talking is personified here, it would be holding a bouquet of flowers during the intimate scenes, a lightbulb during the eureka moments, a party balloon when the bombs detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki and knives every other time especially the third act. The relentless dialogue is always purposeful, holds no sentimentality and drives the plot. There is a free-wheeling jump to different times in Oppenheimer’s life and the editing is a different class, creating a rhythm and cadence to the scenes. This is also a who’s who extravaganza with so many actors who are on screen for a short time. If I am a well-known actor in Hollywood I would seriously be asking my agent why am I not in the movie. With so much talking, exposition can become dry, but Nolan’s prioritising over timing coupled with a pulsating music score always drives the plot. It almost feels like a new way of storytelling. After the successful detonations of the atom bombs over Japan, the movie goes on a different gear with its foot still on the accelerator. For me, this was my favourite act of the film and after a week of the dirtiest politics in Singapore this sensational last act really sent the character assassination, the discrediting and the blaming on a home run for me. For a man known for creating the atom bomb just so America can end the war, how do you survey the moral compass. It’s killing thousands of innocent justified in this case? Is Oppenheimer a hero? Heck… at one point I can sense he was disappointed he couldn’t drop the bomb on Hitler’s Germany who had already surrendered. I don’t know how to answer the questions but I do know that if it didn’t happen I might be writing this blog in Japanese. That said, 3 hours is a huge ask and I have a feeling Nolan doesn’t want to let go of his film. It can get bloated at times and for this film lover I am ashamed to say I dozed off a few times. My wife would say many times and she said I even miss a sex scene. I asked her why didn’t she wake me up for that. Yes, I admit I am a little shallow and as punishment for not waking me up at the crucial scene, she must watch it with me again when I get a hold of the 4K UHD disc. Her reply was “nooooooooo……” (4/5)

Moving the action out of the woods and into the city, Evil Dead Rise (2023) tells a twisted tale of two estranged sisters, whose reunion is cut short by the rise of flesh possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable. Clearly, Lee Cronin who wrote and directed this movie, is a huge fan of the Sam Raimi cult classics. He does an impressive job of paying homage to the classics and also giving the audiences something new but yet familiar. I watched this alone because Choo said NO after I said I wanted to see Evil Dead and I didn’t even have time to utter Rise. What a shame! Because she did see the 3 cult classics by Sam Raimi. She missed a gem of a bloodbath with many memorable deadites scenes. Never once does it forget the essence of the Sam Raimi films in that it is a simple story with crazy inventive scares. This one does clever updates like how the Book of the Dead has sharp teeth and others. I will leave you to catch all the brilliant nods. I only thought the main actress, you know that final person left standing after the ultimate battle, doesn’t have an ounce of gravitas that Bruce Campbell brought to that iconic role. (3.5/5)

Bird Box: Barcelona (2023) is an uninspiring and sorry excuse for a film that has tarnished the allure and legacy of a far better film in Bird Box (2018). Sure the Atmos effects are nice but that alone can’t save a film that screams Dead on Arrival within a few minutes. To me the main reason is because the monster isn’t interesting and it is practically invisible here. Seeing leaves and debris float in the air do not constitute a definitive monster presence. The hollow story doesn’t help. Yes, a few of the gnarly deaths will energise you to hold out another ten minutes but when you hit the end after 1h 52mim you will realise it is 112 minutes you can’t get back. What’s next? Bird Box: Paris? Count me out. (2/5)

We are just 2 episodes from finishing Tehran S1. This AppleTV+ show tells the story of Tamar Rabinyan (Niv Sultan), a Mossad computer hacker-agent undertaking her very first mission in the heart of a hostile and menacing city, which also happens to be the place of her birth. Tasked with disabling an Iranian nuclear reactor, her mission has implications not just for the Middle East, but for the entire world order. When the Mossad mission fails, Tamar goes rogue in Tehran as she rediscovers her Iranian roots and becomes romantically entwined with a pro-democracy activist. Tamar’s soul-searching leads her to become even more conflicted about her mission, while the tension mounts as Iranian authorities led by Faraz Kamala (Shaun Toub) tighten the net in their desperate search to locate her and her Mossad colleagues. I am enjoying this for many reasons. Firstly, the concrete jungle is refreshing. I read somewhere that they shot this in Athens which doubles up as a superb representation of Tehran. Too many espionage shows used Europe and the US as settings, so it is a refreshing change to see a different culture. Thirdly, the acting is superb. Niv Sultan comes across as very believable not as a James Bond type but someone who knows how to melt into the background and get the job done. Her vulnerability is also an asset and she constantly weaponises it to great effect. Fourthly, and this is probably the most important reason I have not given up on the show – both the protagonist and antagonist are portrayed as intelligent people. So many times I have seen shows where only one party is the smart one and everybody else just runs in circles around that lone person. Not here, both parties are smart which makes the cat and mouse games such edge-of-the-seat stuff. No one is invincible here and no matter how hard they have planned everything can still go awry. The air of unpredictability is thick and I can’t wait to see how Glenn Close would fit into this. (4/5)

[desray]

@westendboy

Oppenheimer (2023) is Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus but I am wary of recommending to the everyday person. In my book, there is not an ounce of entertainment to be had (for that, you should see Barbie). It is certainly not something you can munch on popcorn while watching. This is a brilliant and singular character study of man’s hubristic nature and an examination of Satan’s favourite sin, vanity, according to the one in The Devil’s Advocate (1997). It’s a full-on assault on the senses by a filmmaker who at this stage of his career doesn’t pander to the audience anymore and is ever mindful of the cinematic experience. This needs to be experienced on the biggest screen possible. It’s a biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atom bomb, but Nolan has rewritten the genre of biopic here on so many levels. Going into the theatre I would hate it if it’s the typical “America is the world’s big brother” type of narrative and thankfully the focus is very different. Our tour guide into the fractured and tortured soul is one J. Robert Oppenheimer, superbly brought to life by Cillian Murphy. We get to listen him talk, listen to how he reacts and we get to see his thoughts. Yes, there is a lot of talking here. In fact, other than the centre-piece of the atom bomb explosion I don’t remember a prolonged period of silence. If talking is personified here, it would be holding a bouquet of flowers during the intimate scenes, a lightbulb during the eureka moments, a party balloon when the bombs detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki and knives every other time especially the third act. The relentless dialogue is always purposeful, holds no sentimentality and drives the plot. There is a free-wheeling jump to different times in Oppenheimer’s life and the editing is a different class, creating a rhythm and cadence to the scenes. This is also a who’s who extravaganza with so many actors who are on screen for a short time. If I am a well-known actor in Hollywood I would seriously be asking my agent why am I not in the movie. With so much talking, exposition can become dry, but Nolan’s prioritising over timing coupled with a pulsating music score always drives the plot. It almost feels like a new way of storytelling. After the successful detonations of the atom bombs over Japan, the movie goes on a different gear with its foot still on the accelerator. For me, this was my favourite act of the film and after a week of the dirtiest politics in Singapore this sensational last act really sent the character assassination, the discrediting and the blaming on a home run for me. For a man known for creating the atom bomb just so America can end the war, how do you survey the moral compass. It’s killing thousands of innocent justified in this case? Is Oppenheimer a hero? Heck… at one point I can sense he was disappointed he couldn’t drop the bomb on Hitler’s Germany who had already surrendered. I don’t know how to answer the questions but I do know that if it didn’t happen I might be writing this blog in Japanese. That said, 3 hours is a huge ask and I have a feeling Nolan doesn’t want to let go of his film. It can get bloated at times and for this film lover I am ashamed to say I dozed off a few times. My wife would say many times and she said I even miss a sex scene. I asked her why didn’t she wake me up for that. Yes, I admit I am a little shallow and as punishment for not waking me up at the crucial scene, she must watch it with me again when I get a hold of the 4K UHD disc. Her reply was “nooooooooo……” (4/5)

After watching this today…I realized what makes Christopher Nolan’s movies so “epic” and “impactful” is the use of a certain scene(s) in which viewers may not immediately grasp the underlying meaning of that scene or a particular flashback and at the end of the day, all the pieces will all fall into place and that is when viewers finally realized why we need that act or scene in the opening, second and final act culminating to the final revelation or crescendo…then comes the epic theme music and the “same” style of camera work - e.g. “zooming in” onto an object or the visage of the protagonist(s) will take hold and the screen will abruptly turn black with the credit showing…

[westendboy]

Just 4 this week…

Barbie (2023) is about Barbie suffering an existential crisis that leads her to question her world and her existence. When I saw the trailer and the humongous marketing campaign, I could more or less figure out the plot. So I was totally knocked off my rockers with where the story went. How a toy goes into the real world and has her world view altered is an idea that has been explored many times, but Greta Gerwig and co-writer Noah Baumbach took the plastic world of Barbie and frankly made it look bombastic and fantastic at the same time. Using a world symbolic of a doll’s reality, Gerwig went to town by engaging in themes like gender inequality, patriarchy, sexism and more. The premise is ripe for an exploration of deep-set ideas ingrained in young minds like how the Barbie dolls symbolise a body shape that is not easily attainable and a world that is all pink cotton candy fluff. How it delves on the heavy themes and yet keeps everything buoyant in hilarity is a deft masterful act. Margot Robbie is phenomenal in the role and it is hard to see another actress play it. Her doubt is evident, her gradual awareness of her world is palpable and how she wants to be the best version of herself hits my pink spot. Playing opposite her is Ryan Gosling as the scene-stealing Ken. I laughed the hardest at his hilarious antics and his search for his purpose in life is spot-on. Gosling is so good that if there’s a Ken spin-off I will bet my last dollar it will be a box-office hit. I thought the movie over-reaches with its approach when Barbie and Ken step into the real world with the narrative diving into the human angle, corporate angle and even the creator angle. The story starts to become very busy and I had a lingering notion it was biting more than it could chew, but thankfully the last act addresses the themes fittingly and the closures to all the arcs are emotional and well-earned. This is quite an original and ingenious piece of storytelling feat. See what happens if an IP gives storytellers the freedom to manoeuvre? Barbie is imagination in over-drive continually surprises at every turn and it is also a helluva magic trick that frankly I didn’t want to see how it’s done, preferring to surrender to the illusion. Barbie succeeds both as sheer inventive escapism and also as a cinema of female (and to a lesser degree, male) empowerment. I saw this on the third week since opening and judging from last night’s audience it is still raking in the money. After the movie I visited Toys ‘R Us just to look at the dolls and apparently many people had the same idea. Everyone was just holding the dolls and laughing away. Don’t wait to stream this. This is the type of movie you should see in a theatre full of patrons. Nothing beats that experience and sometimes that is “kenough” to make all your troubles go away for two hours. (4.5/5)

The Deepest Breath (2023): Descending to remarkable depths below the sea on one single breath, Alessia Zecchini enters what she describes as the last quiet place on Earth. The Italian champion is determined to set a new world record in freediving, a dangerous extreme sport in which competitors attempt to reach the greatest depth without the use of scuba gear. Freedivers are often subject to blackouts upon ascent, necessitating the help of safety divers like Stephen Keenan, a free-spirited Irish adventurer who fell in love with the sport in Dahab, Egypt. Having formed a special bond on the freediving circuit, Alessia and Stephen train together so she can make an attempt on Dahab’s legendary Blue Hole and its challenging 85-foot-long tunnel 184 feet below the Red Sea. Their fates are inextricably bound together by a tragic event that ensues. This documentary was recommended by a friend whom I always take his recommendations seriously. It is a mesmerising look at humans willing to push themselves to the edge of the physical boundary and at times beyond. It doesn’t quite get inside the headspace to explain why they are willing to do something so dangerous but I can tell you money and fame are not in their vocabulary. What it does remarkably well is with the mechanics of the deadly sport. The numerous talking heads and video clips offer a good look at the two individuals and how their lives will eventually intersect. The interviews always refer to the two of them in the third person and I think it’s a narrative ploy and a foreshadow that they will die doing something they loved. Everything feels a bit twisty so I was surprised at the end which I won’t reveal here. This is a rewarding watch. I can never do what they do but I love watching humans push their physical beings to beyond. I live that excitement vicariously through their extraordinary feats. Stream this on Netflix. (3.5/5)

Notes on a Scandal (2006): A veteran high school teacher befriends a younger art teacher, who is having an affair with one of her fifteen-year-old students. However, her intentions with this new “friend” also go well beyond a platonic friendship. Being a teacher, I am always on the lookout for cautionary tales for teachers and this is one of them. Buoyed by two powerhouse performances by Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett, it is easy to be held rapt by the story of morally wrong relationships and deadly friendship. I usually detest voice-over narration as a ploy, but count me in if it is well-written and delivered venomously by Judi Dench. The English is so uppity crusty and it is also a window into Dench’s character. The movie is so wickedly funny and morally corrupt and it is a delicious joy to watch everything unfold. The third act is a little too convenient for my taste and it does take away a little of the lustre, but to watch Dench and Blanchett go head to head is a thing of beauty. (3.5/5)

One Hour Photo (2002): Seymour ‘Sy’ Parrish has been doing photo development for 20 years. He has a vast knowledge of modern photography and develops photos at a local department store for a living. But Sy lives a sad and lonely life and begins spying on the Yorkin family, his biggest customers who seem to have everything in the world. Sy begins to feel that he wants to be in the Yorkin’s life, but when he discovers that the Yorkins are not as perfect as they seem, he becomes a man on a mission to expose the imperfections of the Yorkin family that could tear them apart. I was scouring around Disney+ and discovered this gem of a film. Robin Williams is cast against type but such is his acting craft that I never saw one instance of the comedian peeping out. Williams surrendered into his silently psychotic role. His vulnerability was palpable and his downward spiralling utterly believable. The movie made me understand we can never truly know that person we meet every day at the neighbourhood. Though always smiling, he or she may be suffering emotionally. This is a deeply uncomfortable watch but a necessary watch. It is also an actor’s showcase and Williams was in incredible form. It is also a story that blurs the line between good and evil. (3.5/5)

[petetherock]

Hijack, nice tight plot with great suspense.
Idris Elba makes a good focal point of an ensemble cast that works together to give us a movie that is like a marriage of the good bits of 24 hours with Into The Night And Speed. The Brits again show us how they can use dialogue to good effect and keep us in suspense and in anticipation of what happens next.

The idea is simple, a plane gets hijacked, but the purpose behind it does not get revealed until later, and the twists keep you guessing on who’s who and what. There are many players in the series, and they contribute to keep the pace going, with Idris and the main hijacker doing a slow dance of wits whilst additional events play on the ground and add tension to whether the plane will make it or not.

Apple TV does not have a massive list of winners, but this one is one of their better ones and I recommend it but don’t watch it all or you might feel sad when it all comes to a head and ends.

[westendboy]

Could do six this week but not all here are worth your time…

Sisu (2022): During the last desperate days of WWII, a solitary prospector (Jorma Tommila) crosses paths with Nazis on a scorched-earth retreat in northern Finland. When the Nazis steal his gold, they quickly discover that they have just tangled with no ordinary miner. While there is no direct translation for the Finnish word “sisu”, this legendary ex-commando will embody what sisu means: a white-knuckled form of courage and unimaginable determination in the face of overwhelming odds. And no matter what the Nazis throw at him, the one-man death squad will go to outrageous lengths to get his gold back – even if it means killing every last Nazi in his path. Oh boy… I love this! This movie comes in a long line of one-man-against-an-entire-army movies. It’s implausible but I didn’t care because the madness and carnage are inventive and depraved. This is carnage on a grandiose scale and seeing Nazis get skewered, exploded, shot, knifed and God knows what else is a wholotta fun. This is like John Wick takes a time machine and goes back to Northern Finland, 1944 to escape the High Table after John Wick: Chapter 4 and once there he realises he still gets to use his special set of skills to dispatch one of history’s worst enemies ever. Crack a six pack and open a bag of chips for this superb mayhem of a movie. (3.5/5)

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023): A Brooklyn plumber named Mario travels through the Mushroom Kingdom with a princess named Peach and an anthropomorphic mushroom named Toad to find Mario’s brother, Luigi, and to save the world from a ruthless fire-breathing Koopa named Bowser. I was never into the game when I was a kid but I was a Donkey Kong fan. So I can’t say I am the intended audience but I still lapped this up like it’s cookie and cream ice cream. The story is simplistic and I doubt adults accompanying their children will learn any great life lessons. This is a movie made for kids or the kid in you. The visuals are eye-popping, the voice acting is great (I thought Jack Black as Bowser was a hoot) and the story worlds are fascinating. The humour is serviceable and at the point of writing I can’t remember any jokes but what does put a smile on my face are the character designs. (3/5)

Yôkame no semi (Rebirth) (2011): After the collapse of their relationship, Kiwako abducts the 6-month old child of a man she was having an affair with. Raising the child as her own, it is four years before the authorities catch up with her and the young child. With a storyline like this I wouldn’t blame you if you think it’s a soap opera. Director Izuru Narushima never goes down the road of maudlin and manipulativeness. His keen eye surveys the central problem from mostly the child’s point of view some years down the road when she is a young woman. A friend of mine saw the movie and told me he cried and it has been a long time that has happened. That immediately sent my radar up. Alas both Choo and I didn’t cry but that’s not a slight against the movie. While watching I knew exactly the moment my friend tear up and I wasn’t wrong. I, on the other hand, wasn’t moved to tears but I was deeply appreciative of the journey the story took me and the ending packs an emotional wallop. By that time the young woman realises she is in the same boat as her mother, bearing a child from illicit relationship. In the end she realises the blame should never fall on the child and it comes to a matter of choice – do I love the child like it’s my own or do I not. It is an ending that is liberating and poignant. One lingering notion did invade my mind throughout the movie in that all men are terrible. If you don’t want to watch a movie where men are cataclysmic creatures of problems, you might want to stay away from this, but if you are open to great storytelling I highly recommend this. (4/5)

Someday or One Day (2023). Well, I would suggest no day. The story is initially told from a young woman’s point of view of how an accident in the past has sent her on a time loop. This is just a terrible movie that took 1h 47min of my life. It is based on a very popular TV series named Better Days which I have not seen and I have a strong feeling the TV series does a much better job of distilling the complex plot and the mechanics of the time loop. At a mere 107min the scenes couldn’t breathe and the characters don’t feel materialised. Their motivations remained vague and wishy washy. The first 30min was easy and I could keep all the narrative elements in my head and then I couldn’t keep up anymore. Loopholes abound like potholes in a road of a third world country. Two versions of the same person can exist together (yes, this doesn’t obey the rules of Back to the Future) and one aims to kill the other for whatever reason. I reached a point I didn’t care anymore. Stay away from this one unless you want to proof me wrong. Choo was very wise – about half an hour into it she called BS on the whole thing. (1/5)

Return to Seoul (2022): After an impulsive travel decision to visit friends, Freddie, 25, returns to South Korea for the first time, where she was born before being adopted and raised in France. Freddie suddenly finds herself embarking on an unexpected journey in a country she knows so little about, taking her life in new and unexpected directions. This is an Emperor’s New Clothes type of movie in that the critics loved it, but I had to scratch my head thinking what is the fuss about. In a nutshell this is a story about searching for identity but the storyteller’s choice of narrative is an unpredictable one. The pace is glacier-melting slow and some scenes can be about nothing. There is one which is weirdly entertaining – seeing her dance for 5min. I really don’t get why this movie is so celebrated. Perhaps I am not shallow… nah. (2/5)

Knock at the Cabin (2024): Armed with elaborate brutal weapons, four menacing strangers break into a remote Pennsylvania cabin in the woods and take hostage a family of three. The mysterious, soft-spoken intruders demand a nearly impossible choice from the paralysed homeowners: decide who will willingly die in the name of a noble cause. Instead, as the insufferable burden of choice ratchets up the tension and the prisoners’ desperate pleas for mercy fall through, an agonising question arises. Why should they trust the four psychotic fanatics? For some reason I never miss a M. Night Shyamalan movie and when the house lights go down I am praying it’s going to be the new Unbreakable or The Sixth Sense, and I always come away disappointed. This new one doesn’t suck big time but it is a waste of an interesting premise. Dave Bautista turned in a superb performance as a giant with a heart of gold. Tried as he might I couldn’t feel for any of the characters because their backstories are not fleshed out and for a Shyamalan movie this one surprisingly moves like a straight arrow with no twists and turns. Everything feels so predictable and I was not sold on the ending. Choo was less forgiving, within 20min she screamed BS. (3/5)

[westendboy]

City of Sadness (1989): The story of a family embroiled in the “White Terror” that was wrought on the Taiwanese people by the Kuomintang government after their arrival from mainland China in the late 1940s. I can finally chalk this off from my must-see list. Being a Hou Hsiao-Hsien film, I know I will be greatly challenged because Hou doesn’t make easy films. It’s like you are given an airfix model but not the blueprint on how to make it. Though frustrating I couldn’t tear my eyes away because watching congenial familial scenes turn topsy-turvy is compelling. The narrative can at times feel disjointed but I still come away with a strong feeling that history and time steamrolls through everything and everyone without mercy. I gathered this is a story about four brothers – the eldest, the big set one, is continually mixed up with shady characters, the second one has returned from the war mentally unsound, the third has not returned from military service and is presumed dead and the youngest is set quite apart from the others by virtue of his gentle nature and his deaf-mute status. This role is acted by Tony Leung Chiu-Wai who couldn’t speak Hokkien and Mandarin, so Hou made his character a deaf-mute. But don’t let that fool you into thinking his is a throwaway character; he is our surrogate and tour guide into the world of pain. His love story with the young nurse is a thing of quiet beauty and tenderness and their communication is based solely on written notes. The scene of them taking a family photo is seared into my mind. Hou doesn’t make it easy but pain should never be easy to watch and this is a very rewarding film to watch, a film I definitely will see again down the road. (4.5/5)

Last Hurrah For Chivalry (1979) is a helluva blast. It’s an early John Woo martial arts flick before he heralded the beginning of the heroic bloodshed films with A Better Tomorrow(1986). I have not seen his even earlier films but with this one you can practically see the genesis of his favourite theme of brotherhood and sacrifice. The movie begins with a red wedding and soon goes into revenge spine, but the dude knows he isn’t a match against the baddie who wiped out his family so he devilishly recruits two swordsmen to do his bidding. This is no dime in a dozen type of wuxia flick in that there is flair in storytelling with a great twist at the end. The action is spectacular and I loved the swordplay. There are many memorable fight scenes especially a prolonged one just before the climax. This fight feels like video game in that the two heroes have to fight in different room settings with bad guys that has different kungfu moves and all through the ordeal our two heroes will wisecrack like jokers. They will eventually face off with the ultimate scumbag in a superb fight sequence which culminates in a jaw-dropping moment. I have seen many old wuxia flicks but this is one of the bloodiest. I was surprised to learn this was a box office dud during that time but I feel time has a way of evening that out and I came away with the feeling that Woo would crystallise his action storytelling sensibilities in his heroic blooodshed era and it all started from here. (4/5)

The Uncanny Counter S2 is a huge disappointment, especially after a stellar first season. S2 follows the typical blueprint of many Hollywood sequels: whatever worked, let’s double-down on that. The meticulous world-building and the main characters’ backstories in S1 are all thrown out the window. The fights become 10 times more bombastic. It’s practically watching X-men fight. The villain is not one but three or four depending on your predilection. They are bad guys because they kill indiscriminately and they dress and behave funny. Good guys are good because they fight bad guys. Oh my gosh… if S1 had evidence of great writing and character development, S2 has zilch. Everyone is so one note and the introduction of a new counter is the worst. The dude takes the prize for the most annoying character ever with the worst hairstyle. I gathered he is comic relief but I couldn’t even sniffle at this whiny character. One of the reasons why S1 worked is because of So Mun’s origin story. He becomes our surrogate as we journey into the world of good vs evil. In S2 he becomes so powerful that the entire team revolves around him and so many times his stubbornness leads to many problems. It just wasn’t interesting anymore. Seeing him flounder, understand his purpose and eventually accepting his purpose was compelling in S1. Don’t expect to see that in S2. This is all noise and no heart. (2.5/5)

Mask Girl (2023) on Netflix is about an office worker who is insecure about her looks. Then she becomes a masked internet personality by night until a chain of ill-fated events overtakes her life. This was a huge surprise and was a recommendation by a friend. Since we got so tired of The Uncanny Counter, we checked this out and it basically took over our lives. There is much to like about this short 7-episode mini-series. Thematically, it is very strong, delving on themes like we are judged by our looks and how we are obsessed to be popular. The vibe is very Black Mirror and the tone is comedically dark. This is a show that is not afraid to push your buttons and it is all the more better for it. I particularly enjoyed how every episode is named after a character and the episode will be about his/her story. The moral dilemma and conundrum is likened to a lake of black water and I for one loved swimming in it. The twists and turns are glorious and in the end it has something worthwhile to say about our society. (4/5)

Shortcomings (2023) is about Ben, a struggling filmmaker, who lives in Berkeley, California, with his girlfriend, Miko, who works for a local Asian American film festival. When he’s not managing an arthouse movie theater as his day job, Ben spends his time obsessing over unavailable blonde women, watching Criterion Collection DVDs, and eating in diners with his best friend Alice, a queer grad student with a serial dating habit. When Miko moves to New York for an internship, Ben is left to his own devices, and begins to explore what he thinks he might want. This is based on Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel and I am a big fan of his work. The screenplay is also written by Tomine and the translation to the big screen is pitch-perfect. All the whip-smart and succinct dialogue, all the verbal sparring and words flying across the room like sharp daggers are translated beautifully. This is a story of an A1 A-hole and what makes him A1 is his supreme sense of entitlement and cynical air of superiority. He has lost his sense of direction in life and rather than challenging himself he is resigned to finding faults with everything around him. In the comic, Ben is unlikable but Justin H. Min plays the character so affably that I find him likeable in a rascally kind of way and all the more sympathetic to his eventual plight. The last act fills in the gaps left in the comic and hits the spot for me. Over a short runtime of 90 minutes, it surveys around themes like self-hatred, race discrimination and the obsession with the white woman. Where I come from, this is called the “angmo dua ki” syndrome . Overall, this is a very entertaining movie to watch and I chortled heartily many times, and it left me wondering how Ben is doing now. (3.5/5)

These days I am so tired of superhero stuff and just wait for them to appear on Disney+ and HBO. I have already read the mixed reviews of The Flash (2023) so I went into this without any feelings of grandiosity. In a nutshell, the plot concerns Barry Allen using his super speed to change the past, but his attempt to save his family creates a world without super heroes, forcing him to race for his life in order to save the future. The main reason I am exhausted with superhero movies is that they tend to follow an algorithm. Occasionally, you will see one that packages it in such a refreshing manner that you would refuse to see all the gears and pulleys behind the screen and just go with the flow. The Flash isn’t that movie. It is perfectly serviceable but it is a time travel plot that resembles Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) which is a much superior movie in the way it uses all the Spider-Man from different eras. Here, the Batman-s are just dropped in for fan service, all except for Michael Keaton’s version who has more to do. All the riff-raff about the half done CGI are correct in my book. Perhaps it is the aesthetic choice of the director to keep a lot of DCU characters looking flat like paper, but it didn’t intrude into the storytelling for me. It isn’t a waste of time, neither is it an adrenaline shot into the tired DCU franchise. It’s a little too middle-of-the-road for me. It’s just there to remind us that there is this other massive superhero camp. (3/5)

[matrix16888]

I watched The Flash last weekend and fully enjoyed it - I give 5/5 to Sound Quality, 4.5/5 to Picture Quality and 4/5 to plot. Really love the movie and gonna watch it again this week. And now I’m a fan of super girl in The Flash, she is totally gorgeous!..

[westendboy]

A Haunting in Venice (2023) is the third film in the Agatha Christie franchise and it marks the first film that is not a remake. Based on Christie’s Hallowe’en Party (1969), it finds Poirot retired in post-World War II Venice. He is now living in his own exile and reluctantly attends a seance. But when one of the guests is murdered, it is up to the former detective to once again uncover the killer. This is a very fresh approach towards telling an Agatha Christie detective mystery with supernatural leanings. When I saw this on opening night, it was the last day of the Chinese Ghost Festival. Everywhere I went I saw joss sticks and offerings on many of the grass patches, so that definitely added to the sinister atmosphere of the movie which is suffused with candle-lit hallways, gothic decorations and dimly-lit figures. When the first death happens, Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) goes into full-on investigative mode with his counterpart, Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey). Here is where the movie failed me: it feels too static and flat. Each interview doesn’t quite reveal a strong motive behind the murder in the past and the one in the present. Part of the reason is the setting which is one locale and one long night. I started drifting out of the long interviews that failed to paint a reliable picture of the characters. I had a hard time staying awake and after Choo nudged me I was wide awake. The pace feels too orchestrated and the proceedings not engaging. There are scenes that add a measure of tension but I had a strong feeling they are inserted to stop audience like me from nodding off. When it hits the big revelation where Poirot lays it all out, Choo turned towards me and whispered: “Of course, it’s the **** who did it” and she was spot-on. I didn’t see that coming but it also did not give me a wow factor. If Choo could guess the who, how good could it be? It was a logical explanation and then comes more necessary information that reveal the catalyst of all the sad proceedings. I half-believed Poirot saw that just based on some inconspicuous behaviour. I want to love this but I can’t; the story isn’t as cinematic as the first two movies. (3/5)

We have seen many other movies at home but there is none I would like to muse about. So I will take this opportunity to give a heads-up on 3 shows we are currently following. No, it isn’t Moving (2023) but that’s on my watch-list because 3 friends have recommended it to me. We will watch it as soon as the bad taste in my mouth left there by The Uncanny Counter S2 has disappeared. One X-Men type superhero show is enough at any one time.

From one mystery thriller, we went on to Only Murders in the Building S3 and we have hit ep7 (just 3 more to go). After 2 seasons the writers found a superb way to jumpstart the show, essentially with a murder not in the building (this was the ending of S2) but isn’t that a slap in the face because of the title of the show. Lo and behold, ep1 ends superbly with a yet again a murder in the building. I love how the setting of this season is the theatre and it is the perfect setting for the theatrics of the two male actors who get to flex their acting and directing muscles. Mabel’s arc is also interesting and the story pushes her character to new frontiers. Two guest stars, Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep, add a wholotta entertainment value to the narrative. Each episode is well-written and peels layers off of characters. At first, we would cry “murderer!” but the rug will be pulled from under our feet. We have 3 more episodes to go to the final reveal and we are still not sure who is the one. In fact, the possible motives drawn for all the characters are so credible and the comedy continues to be great in the dire subject of murder. I am sure it will nail the ending. (3.5/5)

Welcome to Wrexham S2 is a docuseries chronicling the purchase and stewardship of Wrexham AFC, one of professional football’s oldest clubs, by two Hollywood actors, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. Choo isn’t a big fan of this so I watch it over lunch on non-busy days and I must say it is a gem of a documentary. First of all, I love the sport, football. From way back in the 70s you should see how Singaporeans’ psyche are attuned to the fortunes of the game. Those days when our team played in the Malaysia Cup, every game felt like a final because every team wanted to beat us. Growing up, I didn’t have a TV at first so during match nights my wonderful neighbour would open his window and door to everyone living on the 15th storey of Block 116 in Toa Payoh. When Singapore scored a goal you could hear not just cheers from us, you hear a thunderous chant reverberating throughout the estate. Forget about National Day, every week on match nights, every heart would beat as one. Words can never describe the euphoric feeling. Even if we lost, it was still an amazing feeling to be sad with so many like-minded souls. These days times have changed and all these great nights have become distant memories, that is until I saw Welcome to Wrexham. Ryan “Deadpool” Reynolds and Rob McElhenney not only brought Hollywood dollars and star wattage to the club, but following their fish out of water exploits is also compelling. I am sure along the way they wanted to tear their hair out. The docuseries is strongest not when it is focused on the football fortunes of the club, but on all the lives of normal folks whose moods are tied to the fortunes of the club. I find their passion infectious and moving. They can be down on their luck and lives, but yet if the club wins they will still feel on top of the world. Every episode has a unique focus – sometimes it is on the common folks and other times it will be on the footballers. We get to see the players’ struggles on and off the pitch. A recent episode made me tear up – all through the season you get to see star-striker Paul Mullin score vital goals but this S2E2 lets you see Mullin’s autistic son and how he is adamant in loving his son in the best possible way and suddenly his exploits on the field take on a different meaning. This episode also features another autistic fan and what she does go to show even though she is autistic she is still very much an emotional person and she is such a caring person. I teared up like a crybaby. Was the episode about football? Nope, football was just in the background. S2 is all about Wrexham winning the league and other than following my beloved Liverpool, I am also following Wrexham football club’s exploits. (4/5)

Someday or One Day (想见你) (2019-2020) is a 13-episode Taiwanese series with staggering scores – 9.2 on Douban and 8.6 on IMDb. How to not check it out? But I made the mistake of watching the movie adaptation first which was utter crap. Though terrible I felt the ideas are intriguing and felt that a TV series would let the narrative breathe and as chance would have it, I saw series on Disney+. This is the hook: Yu-Hsuan lost her boyfriend Chuan-Sheng in a plane accident. She then discovered Chuan-Sheng and a girl who looks like her in a photo taken in 1998. Who is she and why does she look almost like her? With the help of a Walkman, she accidentally goes back to 1998 and meets a boy who looked like Chuan-Sheng. The time travel and time loop mechanics take its time to gel and the story goes full on the nostalgia. It is more a story of first loves and second chances than time travel mystery. It is also a story of a pair of star-crossed lovers whose love will transcend time, space and even death. But one needs to be patient with this because it doesn’t rush out of the blocks to wow you. Instead, it lulls you in with a brilliant premise and a vivid showcase of growing pains and a story of first love. We hit ep8 last night and I was starting to get lost in the how, who and what, but Choo intelligently hypothesised all the answers to my question marks and she made perfect sense. Now we are all in to find out if her hypotheses are correct with the final run of 5 episodes. As with all shows which feature time travel, the great ones know how to use the narrative device creatively to the point you are not looking at the nuts, bolts and gears, but revelling in the storytelling of which this show has it in spades. How else can one explain why there is a Korean remake (A Time Called You) now. My rule of the thumb is to always watch the original. I am not very sure about the serial killer element though but the characters cannot be falling in love all the time and this murder story is taking shape in the final arc. We are supposed to watch the Hindi remake of Suspect X this evening but as I mused on this show I feel an acute need to find out the fates of all the characters. (4/5)

I will append my final thoughts to all 3 shows here after I have seen all the endings. Here’s to hoping all of them nail their ending in spectacular ways, but I do know for sure that Welcome to Wrexham has a fairytale ending.

[westendboy]

We were done with Someday or One Day on Saturday evening, but I couldn’t jolly well write some throwaway “we are done” waterfall of words. Why? Because this deserves so much more. What was accomplished here is quite staggering and I am convinced that one can’t talk about the best TV shows about time travel without mentioning this Taiwanese show and I am putting my head on the block and proclaim that Someday or One Day should be mentioned in the same breath as other time travel behemoths like Dark and Signal. The best shows that use time travel as a plot device know this element serves the bigger story and the mechanics of time travel has to be clever and the story so compelling that you won’t bother to look for loopholes and I am sure there are, just that I choose to be oblivious to them. A friend said Dark is way above this show in the Top 10 of time travel shows, perhaps so but I told him the difference here is that Someday or One Day is absolutely relatable unlike Dark. Who hasn’t felt the growing pains of our teenage years, fallen in love when we were wet behind the ears and roam the wilderness of our youth not knowing where to go? I might have many good friends now, but those friends I made during my teenage years still hold a special place in my heart. This show has a bit of everything and does everything it dabbles on convincingly. I loved how even in the last 2 episodes the show continued to do some heavy-lifting, not content in just driving towards the finishing line - it delves into depression and how suicide is not the answer even if death is; I loved how sometimes you get to live another life and loved it so much you don’t want to give it up; I loved how even when you are a teenager you can still love deeply and love goes beyond the appearances and I loved that your love for someone doesn’t end if the other person is no longer around. There is so much to love in this show and the time travel element never overwhelms the narrative. The songs and music used are so apt (I am going to pick up the soundtrack after this) and the acting by the cast is pitch-perfect, especially Ko Chia-Yen who simply uses her hairstyles, mannerisms and facial expressions to convey who she is. For a complex show about time travel, I never felt it was dumb-down in order for audience to get it. I am so glad I discovered this and if I had seen this in 2019 it would have landed up in my Top 10. I always feel part of what I do is to point people to the good stuff on TV and at the cinema, and hopefully someone will check it out; this isn’t good stuff, this is great stuff. I know there is a Korean remake on Netflix now but my rule is to always watch the original. This is where it all began.

[westendboy]

The Creator (2023): Amid a future war between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence, Joshua, a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife, is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI who has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end the war-and mankind itself. This doesn’t reinvent the wheel and the story is a hopscotch of ideas gleaned from many illustrious predecessors, but that’s perfectly alright. Frankly, there are hardly many original ideas anymore. It’s about packaging and Gareth Edwards knows how to do this with a limited budget. The visuals and vistas are arresting and time-stopped-for-a-moment great even if the story feels familiar. The war scenes feel like they are plugged out of Apocalypse Now (1979) and the scenes of genocide on the androids feel aptly metaphorical. We are living in a time when A.I. is knocking on the door, threatening to take over our lives and livelihood. The scenario here suggests that perhaps there is a way humans and A.I. can co-exist with safeguards in place. The Creator brims with cinematic chic, confidence and chutzpah even if it ultimately feels unoriginal. (4/5)

The Imp (1981) is an oldie but classic. Recently chanced upon this movie on a remastered blu-ray and I had to pick it up. The plot: Ah Kan (Chan Chen) encounters sinister turns of fate where he works (a fellow security guard dies by choking on a bone, another is strangled by a wet newspaper), and he becomes frightened enough to consult with a Taoist priest. The priest informs him that his workplace had been the site of kidnappings and murders, his house is another source of unnatural influence, and he was born on a day that makes him vulnerable to wandering ghosts. These dark forces also threaten his pregnant wife and unborn child, leading Ah Kan on a harrowing journey into the unknown in order to protect himself and his family. I saw this when I was a kid and I have no idea how come my parents brought me to see this and it left a very strong impression on me. Scenes of absolute craziness were seared into my young brain, especially the scene of Ak Kan taking a lift all the way to hell. It was a scene that was so inventive. Being a Chinese I was well-schooled in the idea of the Chinese’s hell that has 18 levels. When the lift just goes down and down I know he is going to get window seats to the 18th chamber of hell. Watching this is also a chance to see a begotten Hong Kong that has changed so much over the years. I wouldn’t say it survive through the ages because the scares don’t work anymore, but dammit… the creepy atmosphere still packs a wallop. When I was a primary school kid there was a time I wanted to be a security guard in a mall. Just think of all the fun I can have at night, but after watching this the dream dissolved into wisps of smoke. I also appreciate that the movie offers some Chinese cultural practices and traditions which have probably disappeared like the link between pregnancy and cooking stoves. Sound and light effects are used very well and character development is satisfying. It hits a frenzy with the climax and a downbeat ending that probably sent people walking out of the cinema in a fevered daze. This was an important genre film and like the usual Hong Kong practice – it ushered in a whole slew of copy-cats which in a way is the best accolade one can shower upon The Imp. (4/5)

Eo (2022) follows a donkey who encounters on his journeys good and bad people, experiences joy and pain, exploring a vision of modern Europe through his eyes. This is an interesting exercise by Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski who wants to show the state of the human condition through the melancholic and doleful eyes of a donkey. This was an interesting experience for the first half hour and then it became a dour hour. It felt episodic because no satisfying reason is provided to say how he moves from one human party to another, so the movie lacks coherence. I know this was nominated for Best Foreign Film in last year’s Oscars but the movie failed to charm me. If you want to watch a great animal film that speaks about the human condition, watch White God (2014). (3/5)

No One Will Save You (2023) is about an exiled anxiety-ridden homebody who must battle an alien who’s found its way into her home. I teach kids about writing showing sentences as opposed to telling ones and essentially this alien home invasion movie is all about showing. With no dialogue, writer-director Brian Duffield requires Kaitlyn Dever’s Brynn to do all the heavy lifting and Dever is equal to the task. So much is communicated through wordless scenes proofing that dialogue is just part of an equation of what makes a movie work. In this sense, this is a wonderful excercise in a genre film and I can’t say enough about Kaitlyn Denver’s acting. That said, it felt repetitive after a while, especially you start to fill in the blanks with why the namesake of the film title is earned. In the last act, Duffield provides an upbeat ending for Brynn that I am still debating in my mind if it actually worked. Nonetheless, there is another great reason to see this: this will give your home theatre a great work-out. (3.5/5)