A Nutshell Review: Plastic City
Shot mostly in Brazil and against a blue/green screen, Plastic City had all the trappings of a classic gangster flick. After all, it has Hong Kong veteran Anthony Wong whom we all know can go crazy if the role calls for it, and Japan's Jo Odagiri who is more than just your pretty boy actor as showcased through his range of characters in his filmography. Unfortunately, under the rookie directorship of Yu Lik-Wai, this city became too sprawling a convoluted mess of half-baked ideas and ambitious presentation that fell flat on its face.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/07/plastic-city-dangkou.html
A Nutshell Review: Public Enemies
It looks like Michael Mann just can't get enough of playing cops and robbers, and with previous efforts from Heat to Miami Vice, he just about goes to show that he can weave some exciting scenes of pursuit, testosterone charged shoot em ups, and parallels between those on opposite sides of the law. What more, he has the services of Johnny Depp and Christian Bale as his leading men, set in a time during the Great Depression where desperate men turn to desperate measures to survive.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/07/public-enemies.html
A Nutshell Review: Overheard
Between filmmaker/storytellers Alan Mak and Felix Chong, they have unquestionably rejuvenated the Hong Kong Crime Thriller genre from Infernal Affairs to the recent Lady Cop and Papa Crook. I have enjoyed their film offerings to varying degrees, and so far haven't been terribly disappointed. Overheard continues this trend of enjoyment in soaking up their atmospheric pieces with believable, morally ambiguous characters, against a very contemporary backdrop dealing with almost every-day issues - nothing too far fetched that cannot happen, and without the need for gimmicky twists.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/07/overheard-qie-ting-feng-yun.html
A Nutshell Review: Personal Effects
I suppose Ashton Kutcher is a shoo-in for his role here. Given a romantic relationship between a young man and a much older woman, Kutcher's real life experiences would have probably given him a head start in the auditions (if there was one), since he has walked the talk, and this aspect of the story would come off as no surprise. Then again, for writer-director David Hollander, this could have been getting this talked-about area out of the way, because the story here is richer than what the synopsis had painted, offering an engaging tale about the connections found between lost, broken souls.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/07/personal-effects.html
A Nutshell Review: Love Aaj Kal
Love then, and love now. Love Aaj Kal tells of two different love stories, one set in the contemporary age of today in the cosmopolitan city of London, while the other takes place in traditional Delhi back in the 60s. Written and directed by Imtiaz Ali, this film magically combines both stories into a parallel of sorts in breaking up and reconciliation, though the more sentimental me preferred the older story much more, simply because it was less complicated, and based solely on the following of the heart.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/07/love-aaj-kal.html
A Nutshell Review: Food, Inc.
I recall a story where a teacher had tasked her students to draw a picture of a chicken for art class, and to her surprise, one of them drew a chicken fillet. I suppose the point here is that we've become so detached from the origins of our food sources, save for the form they take when already in the supermarkets, cured and prepared with ready to cook/eat processes becoming the norm of our daily lives. And with periodic cases of food scares and poisoning, this film takes a look throughout the food chain of today, and although it's rather US-centric, it still has plenty of relevance here since after all, we import almost everything.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/08/blog-post.html
A Nutshell Review: The Love of Siam
Much have been raved about Matthew Chukiat Sakveerakul's The Love of Siam, and thankfully I had managed to catch this on screen after it's been playing for some time over here on only one screen. Sakveerakul is perhaps more famous here for his thriller 13 Beloved (renamed 13: Game of Death here), but through this film had demonstrated he's equally adept at telling a romance and family drama.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/08/love-of-siam-rak-haeng-siam.html
A Nutshell Review: Mongol
I guess behind every successful man lies a woman, and in Mongol, depicting the early life of Mongolian conqueror Genghis Khan Temudjin, this couldn't be more true. In fact, Russian director Segei Bodrov had pivoted the film and its narrative on the love story between Temudjin and his young bride Borte, whom had provided him objectives, and also an advisory insight into what he should, and should not have done under various circumstances.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/08/mongol.html
A Nutshell Review: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
I have to confess I'm not much of a G.I. Joe fan when I was a kid, partly because the other Hasbro product in transforming robots had more appeal to a boy than a bunch of plastic figures in military garb. The cartoon series too didn't convert me either, as it was up against a whole host of classic series from MASK to Silverhawks, Centurion to Starcomm. Ahh, the wonderful 80s to be growing up...
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/08/gi-joe-rise-of-cobra.html
A Nutshell Review: Up
Much has been said about the opening montage, and I fully agree that it's an extremely touching sequence in itself, bringing out and establishing the lonely character of Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner), a man living out his twilight years, finally deciding to take the plunge and fulfill a lifelong dream and a promise made. If the first few minutes doesn't make you cry, then you must have a heart of stone, or never loved before.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/08/up-3d.html
A Nutshell Review: Where Got Ghost?
If memory serves me right, the Singapore film renaissance in recent years only has one film belonging to the horror-comedy genre, given that one of the city's most bankable directors, Kelvin Tong, had his foray with Men In White, performing dismally at the box office. So perhaps it now takes another prolific writer-director in Jack Neo, together with long time collaborator Boris Boo making his directorial debut and sharing responsibilities with Jack, to pave the way and prove that the genre is not box office poison. And the shrewd strategy here is not to put all the eggs in one basket, but to spread them out into Twilight-Zone/Outer Limits type short films, each having a supernatural ring to them.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/08/where-got-ghost.html
A Nutshell Review: Orphan
The Orphan belongs to the "demonic-kid" genre of horror films, and recent antagonists such as Damien from the Omen remake, and Joshua, just cannot hold a candle to what Esther the Orphan here can do. Perhaps the more frightening aspects that this film dished out, is how they're sans supernatural elements, and contained pretty much what someone can accomplish with just a cunning mind, and a merciless heart.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/08/orphan.html
A Nutshell Review: District 9
It's not everyday for a new filmmaker that one gets a renowned, establish peer admire your work enough to invest 30 million dollars in your feature film. What does one do with that kind of money? Make the most inventive film that one can of course, and District 9 cements itself as a contemporary classic, totally inventive and a definite breath of fresh air that puts all the recent mind-numbing, overblown big-budgeted same ol' hollow blockbusters all to shame with superb visuals and an excellent story that doesn't insult your intelligence.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/08/district-9.html
A Nutshell Review: Bruno
Vassup! So the new flim by funnyman Sacha Baron Cohen finally got the green light to be screened, but alas it's a censored version instead. More on that later, but I suppose the word now is whether Cohen's gay fashionista model-host from Austria is able to replicate what his Kazakhstan reporter Borat succeeded in drawing out some genuine laughter. My personal verdict, and I had enjoyed Borat, was that this gay icon fell short on many counts.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/08/bruno.html
A Nutshell Review: Management
Sure if someone has hot as Jennifer Aniston were to offer you to touch their butt, I'm sure almost every male out there would jump at the chance of doing so without thinking twice. It's a no brainer offer, and a teaser of course to a larger, more sentimental story out there about the relentless pursuit of love, the romanticism attached to wanting to be with someone, without being consciously bogged by the harsh realities of life and survival. With affairs of the heart, to me at least it's a seizing of opportunities presented, rather than to adopt the wait and see approach.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/08/management.html
A Nutshell Review: Scandal Makers
It's little wonder how Scandal Makers turned out to be a blockbuster hit in South Korea. It doesn't have any offensive jokes that could put anyone off, relied on slickly crafted humourous situations that don't try too hard, and has characters that will endear and grow on you. It has some feel-good messages to impart without being preachy, and one would almost be surprised that this is a first time effort from writer-director Kang Hyeong-cheol.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/08/scandal-makers.html
A Nutshell Review: The Last House on the Left
Karmic retribution, or what goes around comes around. The odds for the logic of this film to work is like a million to one, where those who trespass against you, well, you will decide to trespass against them and return them the disfavour when they literally walk into the lion's den. Yours. With home territory advantage, it doesn't need rocket science to predict what would happen next.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/08/last-house-on-left.html
A Nutshell Review: [First Look] James Cameron's Avatar
I suppose by now there are a number of you who might have gotten tickets to watch the exclusive 15 minutes preview of James Cameron's Avatar. Over here in Singapore the special screenings came in the form of lucky draws, and yours truly got the opportunity to watch bring project on the big screen in 3D. Twice.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/08/first-look-james-camerons-avatar.html
A Nutshell Review: The Cove
It saddens me to watch The Cove, because unless your heart is made of stone, it's unlikely not to become unaffected by it, when it shows how evil man can be. It also boggles the mind when you mull over whether the perpetrators know exactly what they're doing in committing such atrocities, that extinction of species boil down to those who are indifferent, inhumane, and corrupted by the smell of profits that highlights Man's propensity for destruction. To claim superiority over another by explanation of the preservation of culture, is bullshit at best, and it just shows how consciously ignorant we can sometimes get due to either lack of understanding, or just simply refusing to change incorrect mindsets.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/08/cove.html
A Nutshell Review: Coco Before Chanel
Directed by Anne Fontaine and based upon the book by Edmonde Charles-Roux, Coco Before Chanel is a biographical tale of Gabrielle “Coco� Chanel set a timeline which is just that, before she founded the fashion empire. So for those who are more intrigued about the fashion world and the impact Chanel has on it, then this is not the movie you're looking for, as it firmly dwells on Coco as a person, and her romantic dalliances with two men who played significant roles in her life, be it in support of her daily sustenance, or inspiring and providing fuel for her desire to make a name for herself.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/08/coco-before-chanel-coco-avant-chanel.html
A Nutshell Review: Turning Point
It's not everyday that a character in a television series got so well liked by the general public, that a movie gets created for that character in order to allow fans one last hurrah, and dwell a little bit more on the background of the character. In true Hong Kong crime thriller style, the character of actor Michael Tse's Laughing Gor (or literally translated as Brother Laughing, a queer name for a gangster really) gets backed by its TVB television studio and Shaw Bros, and the result is this unfortunate telemovie made for the big screen, directed by Herman Yau.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/08/turning-point-laughing-gor-laughing-gor.html
A Nutshell Review: Bandslam
If bad marketing can torpedo a film's chances at the box office, then Bandslam is one such unfortunate victim to fall prey to shoddy promotional efforts, where its High School Musical, kiddie-like trailer would have put off the non-Disney fans, and unfairly slapped on a juvenile perception on this film that had so much of a mature aspect and indie-spirit going for it, from its sensitively crafted characters to its eclectic choice of songs that just did wonders.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/08/bandslam.html
A Nutshell Review: The Final Destination 3D
If you're a fan of the franchise, you'd know the drill by now, and can probably mentally run through all the cliché moments you'll be expected to see being played out on screen once again. Start with a spectacular death-defying escape from certain demise, and because Death cannot accept those who cheated on him, hence begins that hunter-prey game where the Death's invisible hand starts to design some elaborate life-ending sequence for its victims, sometimes with some wickedly black humour thrown in.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/08/final-destination-3d.html
A Nutshell Review: The Time Traveler's Wife
The Time Traveler's Wife is one book that I've always wanted to read, but just didn't find the time to get down doing so. I suppose with some travels later this month and the next I would be able to read what friends have been positively talking about, and I'm especially intrigued about the component of time travel here, in how it could wreck crazy havoc in a romantic couple's life since nobody knows how and when one of them could just come and go randomly. Which of course sounds like what anyone can do these days if you're tired of hanging around with someone else, and I'm sometimes guilty of that as well.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/09/time-travelers-wife.html
A Nutshell Review: Blood Ties
I had developed a keen interest in Chai Yee-wei's body of short films, besides personal reasons that my friends and I did go up against his many years back in a competition (no guesses who won of course). In fact it was during that 48 hour contest that made me sit up and take notice that here's someone who can tell a good, entertaining story under similar constraints and resources, and his shorts throughout the years are testament to that. Some two years ago during a screening of Blood Ties the short film, he had made mention that he's developing the feature length version, and here we are today. My verdict? It's a stellar debut feature film from a young director from our shores, and possibly one of the very best debuts we've seen over the last few years.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/09/blood-ties-huan-hun.html