A Nutshell Review: The Twilight Saga: New Moon
I have to admit that I was quite entertained with the first Twilight film, despite it being steeped in teenage puppy love, and breaking plenty of established rules about vampires, such as sunshine giving them a funky glow rather than turning them to ashes, or them being without fangs, so it's a good thing though that their thirst for blood was left intact. And well, being the completist that I am, I just have to continue with the franchise, and New Moon suffers from the usual middle-movie syndrome, inheriting and choosing to dwell on what its predecessor did without adding any significant meat, and yet not being the second last movie to have increased its pace and intrigue, if any to begin with.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/twilight-saga-new-moon.html
A Nutshell Review: Planet 51
I have to admit the trailer was funny enough, with an astronaut so full of himself thinking that his planetary visit was an open and shut case, only to discover that it's inhabited and he's the alien in the truest sense of the word, like a fish out of water trying to make his way home lest he becomes an experimental subject.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/planet-51.html
A Nutshell Review: The Princess and the Frog
The Princess and the Frog may have gotten off the wrong foot with certain quarters who decide to see this through a tainted, racial prism, but what this film actually did, was to reaffirm that old school animation still has its place amongst CG and 3D offerings, bolstered by an impressive storyline, which is always important if to entertain children and the kids who accompany them.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/princess-and-frog.html
A Nutshell Review: The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
Similar to Evening, this film examines the life and times of Pippa Lee, played by Robin Wright Penn in her current, older age, happily married to Herb (Alan Arkin) and spending their twilight years in a retirement village, where everything seems perfect with friends and family, but with a series of events that threaten to tear at the fabric of their relationship, one fearful of dying, while the other discovering that her sleepwalking may prove to actually be the least of her worries.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/private-lives-of-pippa-lee.html
A Nutshell Review: Bodyguards and Assassins
Minor complaints aside, it's 16 Blocks meets Seven Samurai, where Dr Sun's trishaw entourage scuttles through the streets of Hong Kong, playing it out like a video game where the Manchu assassins go up against boss after boss of different skills at various pit stops, with each exponent providing ample stand-off time for Dr Sun to make his escape, or to buy time for certain meetings to happen. It's a sacrificial of self for the greater good of the community at large, knowing the dangers involved, with the hopes of a new future pinned to the survival of one charismatic man.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/bodyguards-and-assassins-shi-yue-wei.html
A Nutshell Review: Avatar 3D
So was the experience worth it? You bet, save for the end credits being unceremoniously cut off toward the end because of another screening. James Cameron is indeed no stranger to science fiction and the creation of new worlds, having been there and done that, even when there are quarters which point to plot similarities.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/avatar-3d.html
A Nutshell Review: Alvin and the Chipmunks 2
I will not deny that I've grown up with the Alvin and the Chipmunks cartoon series on television, and had unabashedly enjoyed their very first cinematic outing way back in the year 2007, formulaic the storyline may be like an extended cartoon episode. That it had raked in enough cash meant a sequel wouldn't be far away, and the logical progression in terms of the introduction of new characters, translated to the ushering of The Chipettes, voiced by Christina Applegate, Amy Poehler and Anna Faris as Brittany, Eleanor and Jeanette respectively.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/alvin-and-chipmunks-squeakquel.html
A Nutshell Review: Sherlock Holmes
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had arguably created the literary world's greatest detective operating from that famed 221B Baker Street address in London, and has been the subject of countless film interpretations, but none quite like what Guy Ritchie had crafted in making Sherlock Holmes a lot more sexier for today’s audiences, compared to the rather stiff persona perceived so far, picking up the various clues from the books and cranking those elements up by a mile. It’s hard to find someone who’s never heard of Holmes’ superb powers of observation and deduction, being that consulting detective for the police, but never one comfortable with the limelight.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/sherlock-holmes.html
A Nutshell Review: The Treasure Hunter
For what it's worth, I had rather enjoyed the first Kevin Chu - Jay Chou cinematic collaboration in Kung Fu Dunk. Thinking that their follow up film in The Treasure Hunter would be somewhere along the same vein, despite the obvious lifts from films such as Indiana Jones, The Mummy franchise and just about every desert based Hollywood film out there, I'd had rather they really go all out to copy those elements outright, than to come up with this half baked film doomed with a nonsensical story plagued with bad acting throughout.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/treasure-hunter-ci-ling.html
A Nutshell Review: 3 Idiots
When I told a friend that 3 Idiots is the best film this festive period, he told me it takes an idiot to be able to tell one, and that I saw myself in the film. If anything, I'll take that as a compliment, as the film is about self-actualization, or the simple fact that it's a wake up call in this rat race of a world that we live in, that we lose sight of things that matter in the pursuit of success. It's a wake up call that we should be pursuing Excellence instead, which in the work environment one gets easily drowned in mediocrity, or blind faith that success follows without putting in too much hard work.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/3-idiots.html
A Nutshell Review: The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
Gone are the days when a comedy with a premise as simple as this, would have made me laugh uncontrollably at every instance of humour. It's either I've grown older and more cynical, or have totally lost my funny bone. I'd reckon that it's more of the former, as I still laugh just as hard when I revisit comedies done by the Zucker Brothers time and again, which measured by my personal yardstick, goes to show that the comedies these days lack a certain oomph. Watching this was a reminiscence of an era that I'm still missing, where comedies really gave audiences some bang for their buck with jokes that will send you rip-roaring.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/goods-live-hard-sell-hard.html
A Nutshell Review: Old Dogs
Being a Disney film, one would not expect anything raunchy to contribute to the laughs here, having just one particular moment about having two dads who are close would have suggested something of an unconventional family nucleus, but this was quietly and quickly broached. Other than that, this film happened to be funny man Bernic Mac's swan song, and one which came in the aftermath of personal tragedy to the Travoltas, with John a starring roles opposite Robin Williams, and wife Kelly Preston being in a supporting role playing the latter's object of affection.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/old-dogs.html
A Nutshell Review: The Fourth Kind
I suppose the formula is simple enough to follow and fabricate on your own. After all, we've seen at least one monster movie, and two horror flicks rake in the millions with something small, viral, and highly effective. But unless it's properly done, it can turned out quite half-baked like what The Fourth Kind is, forgetting that beneath the gimmick still lies the essence of a sensible story to make everything credible.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/fourth-kind.html
A Nutshell Review: Not Without You
A man in despair walks down a lonely road, only for a watering truck to creep up behind him while spraying its contents on the roadside, drive by and soaking the man despite having plenty of room to avoid doing so. In some ways this simple scene highlighted the plight that the downtrodden face from society, or from people with the ability to show a little kindness or assistance - that it's easy to kick sand into others when their chips are down, or just plainly don't give two hoots about others.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/not-without-you-no-puedo-vivir-sin-ti.html
A Nutshell Review: Mother
We have two foreign films now screening in Singapore which tells of the immense love that parents have for their children in a dysfunctional family nucleus, and the themes are quite uncannily similar, with all round fine performances, so much so that they are representing their respective countries in next year's Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2010/01/mother-madeo.html
A Nutshell Review: Invictus
In his last 2 films, Clint Eastwood addressed the challenges one person faced against a corrupt, established system in the Changeling, and in Gran Torino, took on racism head on with himself starring in the lead role. With Invictus, I felt that it combined his last two films into one, with another veteran actor Morgan Freeman stepping into an historical role as Nelson Mandela, at a time just after being elected and faced with a deeply divided society across racial lines. This is not your usual run-of-the-mill biopic, and you can trust the award winning filmmaker to weave yet another wonderful, engaging film.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2010/01/invictus.html
A Nutshell Review: Did You Hear About the Morgans?
Marc Lawrence makes it a triple whammy in romantic comedies with actor Hugh Grant, but while Two Weeks Notice and Music and Lyrics which I unabashedly enjoyed, Did You Hear About the Morgans is too contrived and too formulaic for it to work wonders, and in some ways mirror the recent The Proposal about a neurotic woman who finds herself like a fish out of water once relocated away from the big city and into a small town, this time in Ray, Wyoming as part of a witness protection programme.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2010/01/did-you-hear-about-morgans.html
A Nutshell Review: Hear Me
The gimmick in the film that allows it to transcend the usual teenybopper puppy love stories filled with an eye-candy cast, is undoubtedly the use of the non-verbal medium of sign language in a film. I don't recall watching any recent contemporary film where the lead characters engage in sign for the most parts of the story, leaving us the audience relying very much on the subtitles (both English and Mandarin with subtle differences) to tide us through. It's a novelty factor, though one that works, and hopefully can help to garner interest such that it shouldn't been seen as a “language� of exclusivity because of impairment, but one which is actually very beautiful with its fluid motion, and as the film suggests, with a certain degree of creative improvisation (hey, so long as you're understood, right?)
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2010/01/hear-me-ting-shuo.html
A Nutshell Review: Pyaar Impossible
I guess it all started with the resounding success of Aditya Chopra's Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, with King Khan taking on the starring role as the uber geek seeking love, that reaffirmed that all Bollywood films need not rely on having all its lead male characters being alpha-male types. And then the revenge of the nerd stories probably picked up, although Ranbir Kapoor's turn as Rocket Singh the Salesman of the Year, a film which I had thoroughly enjoyed, failed to meet expectations at the box office. Then the filmmakers of Pyaar Impossible got all jittery, besides reportedly pushing back its release to early this year, had to play down the Geek factor, and ramp up Priyanka Chopra's hot mama (really) character to draw in the crowds.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2010/01/pyaar-impossible.html
A Nutshell Review: It's Not Me, I Swear!
Unless you're a saint, I'm sure you would have lied at one point in time when you're a kid, gotten away with it, and just became reaffirmed that hey, it's not so bad that you're not going to Hell immediately, and one could just come up with stories to spice things up, get others into trouble, or just get things done your way without paying heed to consequences that can be explained away. I never had such luck. Honest.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2010/01/its-not-me-i-swear-cest-pas-moi-je-le.html
A Nutshell Review: It's Complicated
In some ways, this senior citizen love story ponders upon the What Ifs about the ones whom we had unwittingly allowed to go, and it's quite pro-family as well with its scenes of a wonderful family if it had chosen to stick together, to regret forsaking everything for a moment of folly that one has to live with.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2010/01/its-complicated.html
A Nutshell Review: Motherhood
The Bride now becomes the Mom and that somehow didn't translate quite well for local audiences, given the limited release which so far hasn't gained much traction if going by the looks of the session I attended. Hopefully this should still find a niche market amongst the mothers here for the issues raised that would strike a chord, which is about just what Motherhood means, unless of course like Uma Thurman's Eliza, the real moms out there are too bogged down by their tasks to find time to take in a movie.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2010/01/motherhood.html
A Nutshell Review: Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
Hollywood's latching upon its own vampire fad, where every story that has the blood-lusting creatures would just about be green lit for production without batting an eyelid. Then there's this obsessive quest in searching for that juggernaut fantasy film to step into the shoes of The Lord of the Rings, or to fill the void soon to be left by the Harry Potter franchise and after that the Twilight series, like it or not the latter does have some inexplicable box office draw despite being the weakest of them all in terms of story. Many adaptations were experimented with, from The Golden Compass to The Dark is Rising, and almost all have fallen with sequels canned, or spluttering ahead like The Chronicles of Narnia.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2010/01/cirque-du-freak-vampires-assistant.html
A Nutshell Review: New York, I Love You
New York, I Love You finally makes it to our shores, but its 10 short stories on love somehow didn't find reason enough to be released over Valentine's, probably due to the fact that this year's festival also falls on Lunar New Year, and with that comes the usual LNY blockbuster films from the likes of Jackie Chan (no, not The Spy Next Door) and local filmmaker Jack Neo who has traditionally released his latest film over that period to resounding success. So why fix a formula that hasn't been broken?
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-york-i-love-you.html
A Nutshell Review: Daybreakers
One cannot deny the proliferation of vampire flicks that seem to have begun to move away from traditional action adventures and horror, to gasp, teenage romantic angst with the likes of the Twilight films. And here comes a rather excellent concept with Daybreakers turning things around with an amalgamation of the scenario of a pretty much cliché formula with an unknown virus turning everyone into blood sucking vampires rather than mindless, flesh eating zombies, and the often science fiction idea of harnessing humans not for electrical brain pulses, but harvested for that limited blood supply, marketed and canned as default vampire food.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2010/01/daybreakers.html