A Nutshell Review: Merantau Warrior
Rejoice action fans over this region! South-east Asia has a new action hero hailing from Indonesia, and his name is Iko Uwais. We've already got Tony Jaa showcasing Thailand's Muay Thai, and now we've got Uwais to introduce a different brand of Silat which we have been exposed to thus far, thanks to the SEA Games but that's more like a Wushu event, which is more exhibition. It's still quite amazing to see what is usually seen on TV as executed in exhibition pace, to take on an entirely different form when in combat mode. Merantau - and Singapore has to add a “Warrior� to the title so that we know it's an action film, duh - is a well executed, entertaining film as far as actioners are concerned.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/11/merantau-merantau-warrior.html
A Nutshell Review: Paranormal Activity
Note to self: If I want to make a film that would allow a clueless audience to leave bewildered whether it's a true event or not, leave out all forms of credits, and end it as it is. Although Paranormal Activity is a work of fiction, its presentation made many amongst the audience wonder if it's true, even as the end credits did state it's fictitious. I guess not everyone reads.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/11/paranormal-activity.html
A Nutshell Review: Vengeance
If Daddy's little girl got hurt, you know darn well that Daddy will spare no effort in hunting the perpetrators down, especially when the police is inept, and turning to the other side of the law for revenge seem all the more attractive. Cost isn't a factor too, since everything has a price, especially with a dad willing to sell everything just to see his brand of justice get exacted.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/11/vengeance.html
A Nutshell Review: The Informant!
Liar Liar, Pants on Fire! I was once told that only the truth can set one free, then again there's this thing about truth which is an entire can of worms as well. Anyway, with lies come bigger lies to cover previous ones, and before you know it, unless you're one heck of a skilled liar, it just snowballs until it gets out of control, and you wonder just how you might just break this circle should you come clean. Sort of.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/11/informant.html
A Nutshell Review: 2012
Roland Emmerich has already established himself as the go-to man if anyone in Hollywood wants to make an event film to entertain the masses. We've had an intergalactic portal open up in Stargate, an alien invasion with Independence Day, a bastardization of Japan's iconic monster Godzilla, a what-if tale of a freezing winter when hell turneth over with The Day After Tomorrow, and now, 2012.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/11/2012.html
A Nutshell Review: The Song of Sparrows
I've only seen but a handful of films from Majid Majidi the master Iranian filmmaker, and he continues to open my eyes to Iranian cinema with his latest The Song of Sparrows, telling the tale of a down and out of luck Karim (starring regular Reza Najie), a general worker in an ostrich farm, and the life of his family in a quaint little village. Being the perpetual loser in life, sometimes as a consequence of victimization, we follow his misadventures as a small time guy being caught up with opportunities in the big city, again being the puppet on whom Chance chooses to smile upon.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/10/song-of-sparrows-avaze-gonjeshk-ha.html
A Nutshell Review: Tum Mile
I had thought I was consciously going from one disaster flick to another, from the latest that Hollywood has to offer, to what Bollywood has on its plate. The trailer would have suggested that it's in line with Hanuedae with copious amounts of flood waters wrecking havoc on the man on the street, but this was actually quite the disastrous picture in itself.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/11/tum-mile.html
A Nutshell Review: Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance
It's been a long wait, but better late than never I'd say. One of the classic mecha science fiction anime now undergoing a revamp of its own, and despite not having much background knowledge of where the series has headed toward, I still found this installment engaging enough to leave me wanting more especially since it ended on a cliffhanger of sorts, even though it's yet another long wait before the third film hit the screens over here.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/11/evangelion-20-you-can-not-advance.html
A Nutshell Review: Gokusen: The Movie
Gokusen is based on a Japanese manga which became a highly popular television drama series, and going by the response of the audience, it's likely that many fans have turned up in droves just to catch the latest installment of their favourite inspirational teacher Yankumi, played in quite a schizophrenic manner by Yukie Naakama, befitting of the character who's balancing her school life with the legacy of who she actually is.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/11/gokusen-movie-movie.html
A Nutshell Review: Ninja Assassin
My friends and I had thought about wanting to make a ninja film just for the fun of it, and frankly when the trailer for Ninja Assassin came out, we felt the bar has been raised too high now, given the latest in fight choreography, the special animated effects with the weapons, and of course, Korean hunky mega-star Rain in the role of a stealthy assassin would have rendered whatever we thought of as useless.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/11/ninja-assassin.html
A Nutshell Review: Kurbaan
There are enough films churned by Hollywood which examines the contemporary war on terror, with offerings going as far back as 2006's Syriana, to the more recent The Hurt Locker by Katherine Bigelow, adopting viewpoints of the players at the fringes on either side, or those placed in direct combat duties. Films on terrorism are nothing new to Bollywood, especially when they tackle issues on skirmishes and conflicts between India and Pakistan, but lately, this exploratory net has been cast a little bit wider, and the net being thrown at stories taking place on US soil, and this year alone we have Kabir Khan's New York, and Renzil D'Silva's Kurbaan.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/11/kurbaan.html
A Nutshell Review: Fantastic Mr. Fox
I'm pretty much the sucker for stop motion animation, so this naturally comes with that wee bit of bias, because I surely take my hats off to the filmmakers, especially the modelers and pretty much everyone who has to painstakingly move everything a little bit at a time, which for folks who are impatient (like myself), would already have driven one nuts.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/11/fantastic-mr-fox.html
A Nutshell Review: A Christmas Carol 3D
Robert Zemeckis seems to have been bitten by the motion-capture/3D/animation bug and it's definitely no stopping him from developing yet another flick that continues to evolve the multi-sensory technology to immerse the viewer into an experience. And you just cannot fault him with his latest, as you can see marked progression from what he first started out with The Polar Express, then Beowulf, and now, Charles Dickens' classic tale A Christmas Carol.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/11/christmas-carol-3d.html
A Nutshell Review: Raging Phoenix
Fans of martial arts action films in this region would find reason to celebrate recently with the introduction of Iko Uwais showcasing some combat Silat in Merantau and while I had counted him in amongst peers such as Tony Jaa, Jija Yanin stands out for being the only female of the lot who can dish out as much punishment as she could receive, and breakthrough performances aside, I think the real test comes in the follow up film, if it's either more of the same, or if it'll have enough bandwidth to allow the martial artist to go some distance from their maiden performance.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/11/raging-phoenix-du-suay-doo.html
A Nutshell Review: Happy Flight
Later this week I'll be on my way overseas on a flight, but no that's not the chief reason why this film appealed to me. I had chanced upon the film's release when in Tokyo last year and the trailer had caught my attention for its potential to provide some madcap humour. What's more, it stars one of my favourite Japanese actresses in Haruka Ayase, whose performance in Cyborg, She I had enjoyed, so it's only logical that I picked this film over others releasing this week.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/11/happy-flight.html
A Nutshell Review: Mulan
The last I've seen of Mulan the Chinese folklore hero, was some 11 years ago when Disney decided to make her all singing and all dancing, gave her a mythical pet dragon who mouths off like Eddie Murphy, and made her fall in love with her commander in the battlefield. What more, the Disney folks never fail to remind you that she's Chinese through the character design of making her extremely slit-eyed. So fast forward to today, out goes that song and dance, the dragon gets thrown out the window as well, and hey, Zhao Wei gets casted in the lead role, and we know how mesmerizing those saucer sized eyes actually are. The romance bit in this Jingle Ma movie, stayed and while there are some quarters who found fault with it, I felt it was still tolerably OK.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/11/mulan.html
A Nutshell Review: De Dana Dan
I got to admit I wasn't quite plugged into the fact that Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif were in Singapore earlier this year to film this movie, and it wasn't until after they had left did I come to learn of their presence, and a new Bollywood film after Krrish that had decided to set itself on our island. Having watched Saint Jack again earlier and gone on the Jack of Hearts Mystery Bus Tour, my interest was piqued more on how landscapes have changed, and wondered if what had been captured here in this film, would still survive the test of time some decades down the road.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/11/de-dana-dan.html
A Nutshell Review: Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
I had thought RKO Pictures was already defunct, but it's quite telling that a film from its archives got pulled out for a remake, and although not having seen the original film in the 50s directed by Fritz Lang no less, this remake had the that similar promising premise which soon gave way to ridiculousness. Suffice to say that without the twist element, it's no better than a standard, average courtroom drama cum investigative thriller that already laid out its cards and was just going through its motion to the finale. Assault on the justice system this is not to be.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/11/beyond-reasonable-doubt.html
A Nutshell Review: An Education
We’ve seen a number of coming of age story where the protagonist learns about the real meaning of life, or a snapshot of it as presented, and they either get corrupted by that earlier bit of education, or emerge all the more stronger from the episode. An Education here very much presents that dilemma at times when life throws us a path to a short cut, where hard work can be substituted with a taste of instant success, seducing us to go off the well beaten, proven track and head toward the thrill of having material success presented on a silver platter.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/11/education.html
A Nutshell Review: Zombieland
Should recent apocalyptic films be believed, one of these days we're going to be hit with a virus out of the blue, either engineered or a force sent by Nature, that we're going to turn into angry blood-lusting zombies eager to munch on our fellow man, and woman. And should that day arrive, like in 28 Days/Weeks Later, the Resident Evil franchise, and now Zombieland, working out will become too late too soon, since these new aged zombies sprint with full force compared to George A. Romero's lumbering undead.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/zombieland.html
A Nutshell Review: Couples Retreat
I would have expected a riot of a time given what's in the trailers, but what turned out was plenty of bore, with a story that went way off its potential, and allowing mediocrity to barge into the film no thanks to the lacklustre narrative written by Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn and Dana Fox, who all seemed more eager to insert smarty one liners whenever they can, rather than to focus on the predicament of the four couples featured in a paradise island.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/couples-retreat.html
A Nutshell Review: The Storm Warriors
It has been a long wait, but better late than never. When the first Storm Rider film was released I remembered it caused a stir, for its relatively seamless combination of special effects and martial arts, and for its departure from the established mythos by creator Ma Wing-Shing. Then there is the casting, with popular idols Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng in the leading roles, overshadowed by the magnificently charismatic Sonny Chiba! That was some 11 years ago, and given its box office success, a sequel was thought to be expected and imminent, with big name stars like Andy Lau even thrown into the hat at one time as Nameless, but alas the project got stuck in development hell.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/storm-warriors-fung-wan-ii.html
A Nutshell Review: A Perfect Getaway
This is one of those films which the trailer tells too much, so much so that I was quite certain who the mystery killer couple was amongst the three featured, and proven right. I think I'll steer clear of trailers for a while, since the better ones will keep your interest piqued, but the poorly made ones tend to spell everything out.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/perfect-getaway.html
A Nutshell Review: Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year
When I started to look at Bollyfood films more seriously, it was at the time when Saarwariya was released, starring the rookie Ranbir Kapoor in the lead role as a man pining, and scheming to get the girl of his dreams. Then came films like Bachna Ae Haseeno in 2008, and the acclaimed and successful Wake Up Sid and Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani this year, propelling him to become one of the promising young actors who could take over the reins from the reigning, ageing Khans of Bollywood. And his latest film Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year, just cements his position as a front runner of emerging stars.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/rocket-singh-salesman-of-year.html
A Nutshell Review: Don't Look Back
Selected for competition in Cannes this year and the closing film at Singapore's French Film Festival, Don't Look Back is a rather straight-forward psychological drama starring two European actresses who would need no introduction in Monica Bellucci and Sophie Marceau playing the same role of Jeanne, or so it seems.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/dont-look-back-ne-te-retourne-pas.html