A Nutshell Review: The Day The Earth Stood Still
Tis the season to be jolly, and because of the success of Will Smith's I Am Legend remake last year, I suspect tis the season for Hollywood to look at some of its past science fiction classics and set its gunsights on potential storylines to be redone, or "reimagined" on time for the holiday season, though the structure for this seemed to mirror quite closely to that of the original, save for the message to be preached.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/12/day-earth-stood-still.html
A Nutshell Review: Igor
With a barrage of ultra cute characters ruling animated worlds these days, one wonders if macabre characters would appeal if not coming from the creatively dark mind of Tim Burton. With wonderful animation flicks like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride being tentpoles for animation touching on darker themes and realms (as with festival darlings such as Fear(s) of the Dark), Igor would find itself in good company, and it lives up in certain terms to belong.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/12/igor.html
A Nutshell Review: Twilight
Some friends balked at my preference of watching this movie first in place of other releases this week. I have to admit my interest was piqued at how it performed at the box office amongst the recent slew of less than stellar results by novel to film adaptations. Moreover, there was plenty of talk about how difficult a process it was to find the right cast for the lead roles, and the immense popularity of Stephenie Meyer's novels which had a re-imagining of the vampire/werewolf genre, especially amongst the girls?
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/12/twilight.html
A Nutshell Review: Cicakman 2 - Planet Hitam
I had some mindless fun watching the first Cicakman years ago, which was billed as Malaysia's first superhero movie, that I thought I'd give the sequel a go too. And if Sharifah Amani's in this one, it can't be all that bad, can it? Almost all the main cast return for this sequel, albeit some in cameo roles such as Yusry Kru as Danny and the Ginger Boys duo AC Mizal and Adlim Aman Ramlie in reduced roles as flying fireballs, and as with all sequels, new villains are created but the story's nothing to shout about, being rooted to the usual formula that belongs to kids cartoons.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/12/cicakman-2-planet-hitam.html
A Nutshell Review: Wild Child
I guess Emma Roberts' more memorable role was taking on the iconic Nancy Drew character, but now she exchanges those sleuthing skills and good manners for spoilt brat antics. Swinging from one end of the spectrum of an ideal kid to a spoilt and bratty one, her Poppy Moore character in Wild Child is a rich kid who has issues with discipline because she thinks she could get her way with her devil may care attitude and wads of cash. With her relationship with her father going to the doldrums, she gets shipped off to an English boarding school in an effort to be schooled in the prim and proper, and thus sets up plenty of room for your typical fish out of water story.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/12/wild-child.html
A Nutshell Review: Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging
I guess Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging is the female equivalent of the teenage male sex comedies, without the sex or gratuitous nudity that is, because this is firmly in chick lit territory and based upon two books written by Louise Rennison - Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging and On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God. If you may, this aligns itself more toward Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole series, where we get a glimpse of the titular character's daily life and anxieties through episodes of growing pains.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/12/angus-thongs-and-perfect-snogging.html
A Nutshell Review: Yes Man
It's been a while since Jim Carrey hit the screens, going back to his comedic roots after the rather lacklustre dramatic turn in the thriller The Number 23. But it's a somewhat muted Carrey we get, as gone out the window are the over the top antics and rubbery face, and in comes a fine balance between getting the laughs, as well as having some dramatic flair in crafting a believable working class character who is jaded with work and life in general, opting instead to coast through life almost like a recluse.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/12/yes-man.html
A Nutshell Review: Ip Man
If you look at the last 5 movies in Donnie Yen's filmography, I feel that his better works had resulted from his collaboration with director Wilson Yip. In Painted Skin and An Empress and The Warriors, he was relegated to supporting roles, with the former being ineffectively cast against type, and the latter playing second fiddle to the leads Kelly Chen and Leon Lai. With Yip, he's the able star of the show, and in each of the movies, was put to do what he does best – numbing arse kicking action, with SPL sparring with Sammo Hung and Wu Jing, Dragon Tiger Gate having to lead Nicholas Tse and Shawn Yue battling bad hair days, and introducing some wildly kinetic Mixed Martial Arts action in Flashpoint. So how does his latest collaboration with Wilson Yip fare? Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/12/ip-man.html
A Nutshell Review: Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
I guess it's a no brainer to know I'll head to the box office to watch any movie with Shah Rukh Khan on the marquee, and what more when he plays a middle aged, average working class salaryman who's about to embark on quite the romantic adventure of his life.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/12/rab-ne-bana-di-jodi.html
A Nutshell Review: Pride and Glory
I wonder if a film like this could be made here at all. Not that you can't do it on the cheap, because it's literally sans explosions and action sequences that calls for things to be wrecked or shoot em ups in built up areas, and all you need are charismatic actors to bring the plot to live, but one with the story of having corrupt cops within the force? And it's not just a make-believe force, but one that says NYPD on its sleeves.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/12/pride-and-glory.html
A Nutshell Review: Nothing Like The Holidays
Christmas has become so commercialized, no thanks to Santa Claus and the spirit of consumerism having to buy, buy, and buy some more to meet those pesky wish-lists of friends and family. I guess there's this feel good feeling to this holiday because it's just at the edge of the new year, and it's the spirit of sharing good tidings, and to look forward to better things ahead in the new year. But I share similar sentiments with the head of the Puerto Rican Rodriguez household, that it should be none other than a festival to have everyone get together.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/12/nothing-like-holidays.html
A Nutshell Review: The Visitor
The law is black and white and without compassion, and as they say, Justice is blind. So I guess either way one could get basically screwed if you end up on the wrong side of the equation. For illegal immigrants, the strict policy we have here is a jail term, plus caning, and deportation. We could argue the merits and demerits of punishment, but that's for a totally different post altogether. How this ties in with the movie, is because it set me thinking a bit about the treatment one could provide should you find yourself in a similar situation as the protagonist Walter (Richard Jenkins).
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/12/visitor.html
A Nutshell Review: The Spirit
I wonder what Will Eisner will think of Frank Miller's interpretation of his classic character The Spirit. While I have not read the comic books of old, I am feeling curious enough to want to know whether Miller's version sticks to Eisner's vision, or came off as his own creation, like what he did to The Batman with The All Star Batman and Robin. Miller probably got his interest in filmmaking piqued when he witnessed two of his graphic novels Sin City and 300 rake in big bucks at the box office with Robert Rodriguez (and Miller) and Zack Snyder at the helm, and thought that his stint with the former, and employing similar CG techniques, would allow for a rookie to have a go at it.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/12/spirit.html
A Nutshell Review: Bedtime Stories
At first glance from the trailer, I thought this would be somewhat as insipid as 2006's Night At The Museum, where Ben Stiller had to dumb it down to provide for mass entertainment with Safe written all over it because 'tis the season of good tidings and such. But as it turned out, Adam Sandler proved to have struck some gold with this Disney offering, and I thought it was successfully refreshing for a change after his vulgar outing as Israeli counter-terrorist operative Zohan Dvir.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/12/bedtime-stories.html
A Nutshell Review: Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea
Hayao Miyazaki's magic continues with this absolute crowd pleaser Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, his latest animated film, which turns on the usual sweetness to charm your socks off. I thought that the trailer featured its song which was quietly hypnotic, and I didn't have to wait for an invite to make sure I got my ticket for the sneak preview of the movie, scheduled to open here next week.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/12/ponyo-on-cliff-by-sea-gake-no-ue-no.html
A Nutshell Review: Transporter 3
I'm beginning to see a pattern here, and I'm thinking that The Transporter, if it has the legs for more movies, could be the franchise equivalent of being a poor man's cousin to James Bond. Created and written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen for three installments so far, the character of Frank Martin is a roguish looking strongman with a penchant for suiting up when going about being the best of the best in personalized delivery, with no questions asked, no names, and a whole host of other rules which he will of course break during the course of the movie.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/12/transporter-3.html
A Nutshell Review: Australia
If you're making a movie entitled "Australia", you had better get it right, no? And I thought Baz Luhrmann actually hit it quite squarely on the head with his Gone with the Wind-ish sprawling epic set in the Australian outback and around the time when the Japanese Imperial Army rained bombs over the Northern Territories, with a sprinkling of his keen eye for visual flair especially in the first few minutes where he had to set the stage for everything else to happen.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/12/australia.html
A Nutshell Review: Ghajini
The tattoos on the body, the Polaroid snaps, the notes scattered around the house, and the smoking gun evidence? Short term memory loss, happening every 15 minutes. If this doesn't seem like Christopher Nolan's masterpiece Memento, then I don't know what does. Written and directed by A.R. Murugadoss, I don't see much of a nod of acknowledgement to Nolan's work, and in almost all literature, it only falls back on the fact that this is a Hindi remake of Murugadoss' own Tamil movie of the same name Ghajini, produced in 2005 (Nolan's was in 2000), which joins the ranks of films having their titles named after the chief villain.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/12/ghajini.html
A Nutshell Review: The Duchess
The trailers had tried to market this as drawing some parallels to the late Princess of Wales Diana Spencer's life, given the subject matter being a lady of royal lineage being subjected to a loveless marriage which comes complete with affairs and scandals. It had even superimposed her portrait on the trailer to suggest a deja-vu of history, given that the story here is based on real people and presenting a dramatized snapshot of their lives. Until of course Keira Knightley had to stand up and say that this movie tells its own story without the need for such cheap promotional gimmick.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/12/duchess.html
A Nutshell Review: Seven Pounds
Two years ago, director Gabriele Muccino collaborated with Will Smith successfully in their year end offering of The Pursuit of Happyness, which while based on the struggles of real life struggler made good Chris Gardner, had a saccharine sweet and triumphant ending befitting of the end of year mood of putting the last year behind you, and looking forward to a better tomorrow. This time round however, the Muccino-Smith partnership has brought about a sustained doom, gloom and heaviness throughout the film that perhaps accurately mirrors current sentiments of the downturn that doesn’t look to go anywhere upwards next year as well.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/12/seven-pounds.html
A Nutshell Review: Lady Cop and Papa Crook
The success of the Infernal Affairs series, and high profile projects like Confession of Pain would have made Felix Chong and Alan Mak household names in the Hong Kong crime thriller genre. Their latest offering with Lady Cop and Papa Crook not only comes with a somewhat cheesy title (in English at least), but gone are the familiar gloom and doom that draped their more famous films as well.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/12/lady-cop-and-papa-crook-daai-sau-cha-ji.html
A Nutshell Review: Ong Bak 2
There's no doubt I've been a fan of movies starring Tony Jaa with the likes of Ong Bak and Tom Yum Goong being showcases for the Muay Thai brand of martial arts, and I fondly remember those hard hitting action sequences that left me gaping, as well as the numerous replays just to drum it through to you that it's all Jaa and it's all as incredible as can be. And who can forget the latter film with that amazing single take where Jaa had to pound his way from the bottom of a building right to the top? Ong Bak 2 is a film fans like myself have been waiting for, despite it being marred by some really strange controversy, which also included Jaa walking off the set and disapperaring from production. But everything's been sorted I guess, for the film to be completed and finally released.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/01/ong-bak-2.html
A Nutshell Review: Elegy
An elegy. A form of poetry that mourns of something that has deteriorated. And in this film there couldn't be more references to this term, forming the basis of the theme and everything that happens to all the characters involved in this pensive, melancholic piece. Based on the novel by Philip Roth and directed by Isabel Coixet, this film stars Ben Kingsley as culture critic and lecturer David Kepesh, and snapshots his life during the twilight years, where physical deterioration doesn't mean a proportionate deterioration in sex drive.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/01/elegy.html
A Nutshell Review: Rachel Getting Married
Rachel Getting Married has been getting some pretty positive vibes because of the performance of its leading actress Anne Hathaway. And it's indeed a role that she could use as a showcase to break out of her mold as a teeny-bopper/good looker since she started off with The Princess Diaries.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/01/rachel-getting-married.html
A Nutshell Review: Changeling
J. Michael Straczynski of Babylon 5 fame wrote Changeling, which is based on the true story of one woman's fight against corruption, incompetence, accusations and intimidation, all the while in searching for the truth of what happened to her beloved 9 year old son, who vanished without a trace, only for the LAPD to try and convince her that the boy they found, was indeed her son. But that's just the gist of the first hour with plenty more in store, keeping you gripped to the screen as the story develops.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/01/changeling.html