Zestful One

[Movie Review] Babylon A.D. (no spoilers)

Posted by IcedNyior on August 28, 2008  |  6 Comments

Short intro of the movie : Toorop (Vin Diesel) is a mercenary surviving in the very run down land of Russia. His appearance is of one that has seen many things in his life and killed many people, hardened with scars on his face. He is then assigned to deliver a girl from a convent in Khazakstan to New York. She looks innocent but something lurks between those glassy eyes. What is her secret? And who are these people that are after her?

Have you guys seen the trailer for this? Vin Diesel with his growly voice fighting, Michelle Yeoh with her flying kicks and that awesome awesome scene with where the missle exploded around the girl (Melanie Thierry) and the flames just swirled around her without hurting her.

Well, this is yet another case of trailer-is-better-than-the-movie. In the beginning the movie was exciting, with the fighting and the shooting but after that, it was all just boring. And the ending? This is the movie that will make you go “What? That’s it?!?!”

Interesting story but the ending was such a dissapointment. Even the director himself Mathieu Kassovitz isn’t happy with the movie. He said there were too many cuts. So much so that even Vin Diesel joked “”Am I even in the movie any more, or am I on the cutting room floor?” [Source] Its sad when even the director and actors themselves aren’t too pleased with the movie.

My rating : 1.5 of 5 stars :(

Much thanks to Miu [review] for getting tickets to the premiere :) and even getting one extra for me at the very last minute. Hurley [review] and UncleFrog [review] was there tho I didn’t see them (and uncle sombong dowan to tegur me :().

Oh yea, did u guys notice the RELA ppl patrolling the cinema? Hoping to catch some people recording I think. Pls, who would want to show a cam version of such a lousy show.

Review : Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (no spoilers)

Posted by IcedNyior on May 23, 2008  |  5 Comments

Ah, the fourth installment of Indiana Jones. There must be a lot of people who are looking forward to George Lucas’ and Steven Spielberg’s latest offering. I went to watch it last night and didn’t quite like it. More on that later. First, the summary. For once I didn’t copy paste from somewhere else. LOL!

The year is 1957, and the movie opens with a row of military vehicles driving along a lonely road in a scorching desert. A not-that-young-anymore Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and his sidekick Mac (Ray Winston) is caught by Soviet agents lead by the ruthless Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett). They want something from him – the way to find the Crystal Skull.

Together with Mutt Williams (Shia LeBeouf), his mentor (John Hurt) and his mother (Karen Allen), Indiana Jones must race against to Soviet agents to be the first to find the Crystal Skull.

Okay, the movie was full of the usual exploring different countries and running into the forests and visiting old temples – like most of Indiana Jones’ movies. I expected something full of adventure and puzzles, much like movies such as National Treasure. Boy was I disappointed.

Everything was so easy, from the deducing of the clues, how they escaped the bad guys to deciding what steps to take next. Indiana Jones had kinda lost his edge, being much more ‘softer’. I’d expected someone who had great witty and sarcastic comebacks.

And don’t get me started on the ending, after all that swordfighting, punching people in the gut and bleeding noses, it was SUCH a letdown.

Lets hope the next installment of Indiana Jones – I think there is going to be one – would be much much better than this one.

Rating : (*)(*) 2 out of 5 stars

Review : Speed Racer (no spoilers)

Posted by IcedNyior on May 8, 2008  |  3 Comments

Thanks to Fly FM’s Night Flight, I won four free tickets to watch Speed Racer at GSC, One Utama just now. So I brought along Aree, Pam and Jazzy (but Jazzy couldn’t make it and the bf is sick). The movie started at 9pm but we went in a bit late coz we had dinner at Zuup first (their New England Clam Chowder is to die for).

Synopsis from Yahoo! Movies : To Speed Racer, nothing says “family values” like barreling down a racetrack at face-flattening speeds. So when mega-mogul Royalton offers the young driver a corporate sponsorship, Speed turns him down. An enraged Royalton tells Speed he’ll never win a race again, and he’ll send ninjas after Speed to insure it. It’s up to Speed, his best girl Trixie in her pink helicopter, and the enigmatic and brilliant Racer X to ensure Speed’s victory in “The Crucible”: the same perilous cross-country free-for-all that killed his brother. Will Speed follow in his big bro’s tire tracks?

At first, I didn’t really have high expectations for this movie because I read a review somewhere that it wasn’t so good and I never did like racing cars stories. Plus, comic/cartoon series based movies sometimes are a flop.

However, Speed Racer blew me away. Directed by Larry Wachowski and Andy Wachowski, the same people who brought The Matrix, it was a fast paced flashy movie combining well known and loved characters with a good story and fantastic effects. Not to mention a good lineup of actors and actresses namely, Emile Hirsch, Susan Sarandon, John Goodman, Christina Ricci, Matthew Fox, Kick Gurry.

Edit : Oh yea, i forgot to mention that it’s Rain’s Hollywood debut as well. Rain (whose real name is Jung Ji Hoon) is a South Korean singer/actor. Rain’s role is a Japanese driver who teamed up with Speed Racer and Racer X to race in the Crucible – like an underground race thats very dangerous and full of cheating contestants. KInda weird how they never mentioned him in the synopsis tho.

I loved how they combined comic book/cartoon style drawings with real life. Its really like reading a comic book with the characters having flashbacks and when the hero looks at the heroin, the background becomes blurry with colourful hearts. LOL! The CGI of the racetracks and scenes were also fantastic. Not too outrageous that it looks so fake (like most Malaysian movies attempts at CGI) but very creative.

All in all, great movie, good storyline and plot (I think aree felt like crying at some point) and superb cast – like the very yummylicious Matthew Fox and cute, adorable rain. :X

Rating : (*)(*)(*)(*)(*) 5 stars

p/s: Jules of FlyFm asked if it was the movie with the talking dog. Well there isn’t any talking dog but there is a cute monkey.

Review : Iron Man

Posted by IcedNyior on May 1, 2008  |  5 Comments

I watched Iron Man this afternoon at Cineleisure. Not many people in the cinema, in fact we had the whole row B to ourselves. The synopsis from Yahoo!Movies : “Tony Stark is a billionaire industrialist and genius inventor who is kidnapped and forced to build a devastating weapon. Instead, using his intelligence and ingenuity, Tony builds a high-tech suit of armor and escapes captivity. When he uncovers a nefarious plot with global implications, he dons his powerful armor and vows to protect the world as Iron Man.”

Usually with comic-turn-big-screen movies, there is some element of disappointment because its lacking certain elements but this movie has been touted as one of the best comic turned movie. Its set in sometime in the future where our technology is more advanced such as smart homes, hologram type of screens, model rendering which takes 2 seconds (as compared to the current 12 hours). It helps that Robert Downey Jr was good in his lead role of Tony Stark/Iron Man.

I enjoyed this movie because it wasn’t too out of this world with totally unrealistic CGI and weird plots. Good movie! So don’t forget to catch it in cinemas

Rating : (*)(*)(*)(*) out of 5