THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN - PART 1 (2011)

MyRating: YY

Director: Bill Condon

Cast: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Sarah Clarke, Nikki Reed, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Ashley Greene, Kellan Lutz, Jackson Rathbone, Julia Jones, Booboo Stewart, Anna Kendrick

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for disturbing images, violence, sexuality/partial nudity and some thematic elements

Would you give your mortal life to live for eternity on earth? Living for centuries after all the people that you've ever known have died, and they remain as 'thousand-years' memories in your mind? Or running into the road of immortality that you may regret you ever took, since it will become a long and never-ending journey? Well, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is pretty sure that this is the right path she wants to go, since she can live together with her handsome vampire boyfriend that she loves, even though she will have to be turned into a vampire herself as the consequence.

 

This fourth installment of The Twilight Saga enormous franchise (books written by Stephenie Meyer) tells the story of Bella Swan and Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) who finally decide to get married, as it is the best way to bind their true love for eternity. The movie surely didn't waste its time by telling you this from the very beginning, and soon you will see Bella and Edward walking through the aisle. And it was a beautiful wedding ceremony, with a happy crowd of families and relatives and friends, who are cheering for them, except for the heartbroken Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner). Did half of this crowd even know that she will have to be turned into a living vampire? I don't know. The interesting thing is, when Edward and Bella said their marriage vow, there was no "Till death do us part" line at the end.

After the wedding, like other normal people, Edward and Bella go for a honeymoon to Isle Esme, a private tropical island off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where they celebrate their love and have their first sexual experience. But their honeymoon suddenly turns edgy when Bella discovers that she is pregnant after two weeks. It becomes a shock as, theoritically, it is not possible for a vampire to impregnate a human. Besides that, as the baby inside her is a half-vampire and a half-human child, it grows with an unnaturally accelerated speed that may endanger Bella's life. As her condition is getting worse as the fetus grows bigger, while she insists to keep her baby, Bella is struggling with a life-and-death situation for her coming childbirth. While Jacob, who always loves and feels the need to protect Bella, has to step inside, as the unborn child has somehow become a threat to his Quileute wolf pack, whom have planned to kill the child and the mother, Bella. 

I will not bash this movie, as I think you should know what you expect when watching a Twilight movie, and there are already enough haters for this franchise, including from the people who have never even watched the movies. And I will start by saying the good things about this latest installment. This movie has a beautiful cinematography, especially when showing the breathtaking sceneries of the island of Isle Esme. The waterfall, the ocean, the river and the forest have brought up the perfect romantic atmosphere into the honeymoon 'adventure' of Bella and Edward. I also think that the soundtrack and music score were cool. The ballad songs were really catchy to the ears, which increased the romanticism that this movie was trying to build, including the song 'A Thousand Years' by Christina Perri.

Is it romantic? I never really bought into the relationship of Edward and Bella, which was always felt a bit awkward to me. However, with the lustful sceneries and the romantic songs, I kind of enjoyed their joyful time together in this movie, which gave a youthful vibrant of love. I believe these scenes will blow the teenage girls away with their dreams of a beautiful and perfect true love out there. This movie also has plenty of intimate kissing scenes between Bella and Edward, which surely will satisfy and make the fans scream. And enough love-making scenes, which I think some may be a bit too 'strong' for a PG-13, including swimming naked in the ocean and breaking a bed. And the leading sexual desires, such as when Edward found out that he actually hurted Bella when they made love by seeing the bruises in Bella's body, and since Bella is not yet turned into a vampire, Edward decided to give some distance in their sexual relationship in order not to further hurt her, which left Bella with a bit of frustration at the other end, and we can see in one scene that Bella was craving for Edward to make love to her, as she badly needs it. Yes, as the series is near the end, this movie has a more mature theme, including the pregnancy and childbirth issues. And the director seemed tried to utilize this mature theme to make this movie looked and felt as romantic as possible.

The plot itself was slow moving, as of other Twilight movies. Some boring moments for me, as usual. There was not much of a story actually. The human and the vampire lover get married, they find out that she is pregnant, and then they have to deal with the complications of her childbirth afterwards. As simple as other teen romances, only with the cloth of vampires and werewolves, but never managed to scare us (indeed Stephenie Meyer never intended to). No characters that are compelling enough. And not much actions too, except at the end when the wolf pack headed for Bella. It has its interesting moments though, and for the eye-catching reasons, I like the first half of the movie better than the second half.

From the acting side, there was not much development as all the actors gave mediocre performances, but it may be enough for the script. And I still think that Robert Pattinson gave the worst performance with his wooden acting and expressions. Taylor Lautner was okay, always thought that his character was slightly more interesting than Pattinson's boring vampire character. Kristen Stewart was less annoying here, and one thing I must say about her is, she looked beautiful in this movie, especially in the beginning of the film when she became a bride and walking through the aisle, even though we also will see how the make-up team turned her to look old and messy when she got pregnant. I think, aside from her acting capability that was frequently being criticized in the Twilight series, she has grown to become a beautiful actress.

"I have died everyday waiting for you.
Darling, don't be afraid, I have loved you for a thousand years.
And I will love you for a thousand more."

Like it or not, Twilight has become a global phenomenon, whether it is the books or the movie franchise. People may hate it, or curse it, or say it's trash, but this franchise will always stay at the very special parts of the hearts of its fans. As for me, I enjoyed this movie more than the previous two, and even though I am not a fan of this series, I surely will finish it by watching  Breaking Dawn - Part 2 next year. (MJ)

Soundtrack: (right click to not exit this page)

- A Thousand Years by Christina Perri 

Related Twilight movie reviews by MyMovie Critic:

- The Twilight Saga: NEW MOON (2009)

- The Twilight Saga: ECLIPSE (2010)

MYMOVIE CRITIC - REVIEWING MOVIES FROM THE AUDIENCE'S STANDPOINT

THE THREE MUSKETEERS (2011)

MyRating: YY1/2

Director: Paul W.S. Anderson

Cast: Logan Lerman, Matthew Macfayden, Ray Stevenson, Luke Evans, Milla Jovovich, Christoph Waltz, Orlando Bloom, Gabriella Wilde, Freddie Fox, Juno Temple, Mads Mikkelsen, James Corden

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for sequences of adventure action violence
One of Alexander Dumas' most notable masterpieces and legacies (besides The Count of Monte Cristo), The Three Musketeers is back. And now, in the hand of Paul W.S. Anderson (the same director who brought us Mortal Kombat, AVP: Alien vs. Predator, Death Race and Resident Evil), this famous and classic swashbucking tale has turned into the 21st century 'Victorian steampunk' adventure with gigantic flying ships, lots of gun powder explosions and least amount of logic.

The young D'Artagnan (Logan Lerman) goes to Paris with the dream of becoming a Musketeer. Hot headed and reckless, he quickly gets himself into an animosity with Cardinal Richelieu's (Christoph Waltz) guards. At almost the same time, he also arrogantly challenges the three ex-Musketeers, Athos (Matthew Macfayden), Porthos (Ray Stevenson) and Aramis (Luke Evans) into a duel. But as they find out that they are actually in the same boat, as the Three Musketeers also hate Richelieu and his guards for their evil doings (The Cardinal is the mastermind behind the French monarch, who controlls the young and inexperience King Louis XIII (Freddie Fox) like a puppet for his own interests), and as the Three Musketeers are impressed with D'Artagnan's swords skills and determination, they finally become friends. Together, they have to stop the evil grand plan of Richelieu to cause a war between France and England, to fight Captain Rochefort (Mads Mikkelsen), Richelieu's one-eyed leader guard and a fine swordsman, to defeat the treacherous double agent Milady the Winter (Milla Jovovich), and to stop the Duke of Buckingham from England (Orlando Bloom) to attack France.

Paul Anderson surely didn't hesitate to make his movie to look big and spectacular with many supposed to be 'big spectacular' scenes, but the results ended up making the movie looked dumb instead, with many 'big dumb' scenes, and these were what hurt the movie. When I saw Milla Jovovich running and dodging hundreds (or thousands, maybe millions) of deadly hidden weapons shooting all around in the booby trap chamber in the beginning of the movie, I said to myself, "Eww, that was unbelievable stupid!" That was a very bad start and I believed things might get worse only.

But after a very clumsy beginning, I have to say that I somehow started to enjoy the movie when it told the story of D'Artagnan getting into troubles in Paris, meeting with the Three Musketeers and defeating the 40-something royal guards (not 400 guards, as the kingdom had an off day that day). Some of the humors were working just fine. The actings from the cast were not bad actually. Logan Lerman and the Three Musketeers were not outstanding, but they were not bad at all in playing their characters and giving us some fun time. And we have Christoph Waltz who seemed to play his stereotype villain role, but always a fun to watch. King Louis XIII character, played by Freddie Fox, has many screen times in this movie, and like it or not, his silly character (who worries more on what color of suits he should matchingly wear today than on how to rule his kingdom) was kind of a smile-teaser. The movie also has Milla Jovovich, who seemed to get some of her special action scenes here because of her hubby director Anderson, but she is always a one-tough chick. And finally we got Orlando Bloom. I am not sure whether now the girls are still 'screamin and yellin' everytime they hear his name, but he is who he is, never really impressed of him, but again, he was not bad here.

I think the setting and the costumes were good, especially the colorful Victorian costumes. And the cinematography was beautiful, as well as the airships. I didn't watch this movie in 3D, but I could imagine some pretty cool stuffs offered if I watched it in 3D. This movie never stopped being silly though. It was kind of a joke for me when watching an airship shooting brutally towards a building with many enemies and one of our heroes inside, hitting the enemies all around, while our hero managed to run pass through the bullets without any scratch. Or when two airships bombarded each other with heavy weaponry, both got bombed so badly that I was afraid I would fall, but still managed to fly and didn't sink. Or wait until you see them sank on top of a high building. Ridiculously impressive! Over the top and spectacularly dumb.

Don't take it too seriously when watching this movie, even though the filmmakers did take it serious as they confidently give an open ending that will lead to a sequel... if the sequel were ever being made. (MJ)

MYMOVIE CRITIC - REVIEWING MOVIES FROM THE AUDIENCE'S STANDPOINT

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER (2011)

MyRating: YY1/2

Director: Joe Johnston

Cast: Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Toby Jones, Neal McDonough, Derek Luke, Stanley Tucci

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action

The last and separate an 'Avenger' character movie before Marvel fulfills their most ambitious project next year with The Avengers (2012). A sickly young man from Brooklyn, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), who because of his good-hearted nature and strong determination, is being chosen into a top secret experiment that transforms him into a super soldier called Captain America, in order to help America to win the war. By leading a group of other fellow soldiers and with his new power that makes him to have a muscular body, who can jump higher, run faster and lift stronger, he has to stop Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), the evil Nazi's head of advanced weaponry, who intends to use a stolen tesseract energy-source to dominate the world.

I fancied Captain America when I was a child, mostly due to his patriotic superhero figure, his cool costumes and the shield. And I really liked how the story of this movie began, by telling the underdog tale of a young man who dreams to become a soldier and fight for the honor of his country, but his weak body doesn't allow him to past the enlistment test. The setting of the story in the World World II era of the 1940's was a perfect set up, which gave the movie a different tone and color with other superhero movies that tend to take the settings of the current time. The cast of Chris Evans as the Captain was also a good choice. He just seemed to fit once his name was being announced to take the role. It was interesting to see how the CGI made him to have such a small and skinny body in the beginning of the movie, that made me questioning whether he was Chris Evans or another actor playing the 'small' version of him.

I think Evans played his character well (he hit the required mark, not more and not less) and this time he didn't appear with his seems to be naturally 'comically cocky' characters, like his appearances in The Losers, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and as Human Torch in Fantastic Four, which made him looked more subtle here. One thing I must say, he was very lucky to play Captain America, as this is the biggest role of his career. The fact is, he rejected the role three times before he finally accepted it, because he was afraid his life would become less private if the movie became a hit. And he said in one interview that he can't believe he was almost too chicken to play Captain America. Now, the history has marked his name as 'Captain America', a right decision he must have glad that he has taken. The other supporting actors were of the big names, such as Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving and Stanley Tucci. As the love interest, Hayley Atwell also played fine as the tough woman officer.

Now, the problem I have with Captain America was the script. The movie has a good and very promising start, but it lose its grips and steam as the story goes, that somehow made me felt disconnected with the story and the characters. And I thought the propaganda thing that dragged Captain America into in the middle of the film made the story lose its focus and strayed the 'already right' mood away, and never could really bring it back. When the movie got into more actions at the end, I have lost some of my interests towards the movie. I think this movie has so much potentials but never reached its full potential. It could have been better. The story could have been better. And I hate to say that this is just a mediocre superhero movie, mainly due of the mediocre and bland storytelling with less soul. Looked great, but didn't feel great for me. (MJ)

FINAL DESTINATION 5 (2011)

MyRating: YY

Director: Steven Quale
Cast: Nicholas D'Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Ellen Wroe, Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, P.J. Byrne, Arlen Escarpeta, David Koechner, Courtney B. Vance, Tony Todd
MPAA: Rated R for strong violent/gruesome accidents, and some language
A group of co-workers are on their trip to a company retreat. When their bus is crossing the North Bay suspension bridge, one of the team member, Sam (Nicholas D'Agosto), gets a premonition that the bridge will collapse and kill everybody on it, including all them in the bus. So in a panic , Sam gets off the bus, taking her girlfriend (Emma Bell) with him, followed by several other co-workers, and runs into safety. And the bridge does collapse! Sounds familiar? Yes, because they did it five times already. And you know the rest very well, as one by one of the survivors will finally meet his or her death in other not less horrifying ways. You can postpone death but you can't cheat death.

I waited for the big accident to happen in the beginning of the movie and I must say that the bridge collapsing scene was pictured pretty well (this was always the most fun part to watch in every movie of this series, to see how the accident actually happened). But this scene was also seemed to be the only scene that I really enjoyed in this fifth installment, while the rests (the one by one death scenes) were becoming too formulaic and routine for me. Some of the death scenes were pretty hard to watch though, such as the eye lasik scene and the Chinese acupuncture scene, which gave me a complete eerie and uneasy feeling on my seat while watching them.

You may have a different feeling if this is the first time or the second time you watch this series (where the movie idea may still look fresh) than if you have watched them five straight times, like I did (they got me everytime, didn't they? but what can I say, I am a horror movie fan). Nothing's really new or creative, just the different ways to kill the characters, and you know all of them should die at the end. Watching a movie with the same old script over and over again will become tiresome eventually, and that was exactly how I felt. This movie tried to give some interesting twist at the end though, which was a good thing. But in overall, this series has reached its fatique point. Anyway, you should know what you expect when watching this movie. (MJ)

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON (2011)

MyRating: YY1/2

Director: Michael Bay
Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Josh Duhamel, Patrick Dempsey, John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Ken Jeong

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense prolonged sequences of sci-fi action violence, mayhem and destruction, and for language, some sexuality and innuendo

Big, loud, noisy, and hectic. That was my feeling everytime I watched a Transformers movie. And it was not much different for me this time. The robots are back, as the Autobots and Decepticons continue to battle for 'supremacy' over the earth. If you are a fan of the series, it may promise you with even more spectacular battles between the robots, as they fight all over, mess up and destroy the city of Chicago.

 

Apart from how I felt about this movie, I must say that what Michael Bay did in bringing these robots to live, including how he orchestrated to show the robots and their transformations in such amazing details, was indeed an impressive work. Like it or not, he is one of the top action movie directors nowadays, who knows exactly what he does and how to please the crowd, and continuously bringing us these kind of popcorn blockbuster movies. Some may say it 'dumb' blockbuster movies. But it doesn't matter, since the combined three Transformers movies itself have made more than $2,600 Million worldwide. For sure, these movies were no 'dumb' investments for the studios.

The movie took its time to introduce some of the new characters and showed how the current life of Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), after saving the world two times, and who for the second time around, very lucky to get the hottest girl in town, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (ex Victoria's Secret model), who herself was lucky to replace Megan Fox as Sam's love interest in this third installment. Besides the gorgeous Whiteley, with whom LaBeouf run together hectically all around the city for the most parts of the movie, the script also tried to mix the historical event of the first men landing on the moon with a fiction set-up on what actually happened on the landing as the background story.

Now, the story. You may have heard this a million times, including from the people who hate Michael Bay, or the people who think that they 'have' to also hate Michael Bay, but I have to agree that 'storytelling' was not Bay's strong point. As much as how this movie showcased its spectacular action scenes and visuals (especially with the value added of 3D), and the quite promising first half of the movie, but somehow as the story goes, it slowly lose my interest in the middle of destruction and explosion scenes. The story was just not as strong as the robot parade. Big in actions, less in emotions.

The addition of the new characters like John Malkovich and Frances McDormand did refreshed the movie though with some good humors and their on-screen charismas. And I actually also liked Ken Jeong with his peculiar and crazy appearance, but with a strong comical bite. Shia LaBeouf did his part well in playing his character with his patent frantic expressions. Sam was him now anyway. While Whiteley has quite a lot of screen time. She was absolutely beautiful, hot and sexy. A bit stiff in acting and strange in accent, but I liked the girl, and I think she was fine in her role. Megan Fox may have her own mystery and sex appeal in the first Transformers that launched her career, but this new girl was definitely not less attractive.

This movie was not bad actually. I did have some fun with it, lots of actions, but it didn't make me jump on my seat, and the movie in overall was emotionally flat and fell a bit mechanical for me. Feeling the frantic, yes. Emotionally involved, no. Never really been a fan of the series, this film was just another Transformers movie with the same old things. Seen it before. (MJ)

MYMOVIE CRITIC - REVIEWING MOVIES FROM THE AUDIENCE'S STANDPOINT

SUCKER PUNCH (2011) - Extended Cut

MyRating: YY1/2

Director: Zack Snyder

Screenplay: Zach Snyder & Steve Shibuya

Cast: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Carla Gugino, Oscar Isaac, Scott Glenn, Jon Hamm

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for thematic materials involving sexuality, violence and combat sequences, and for language

After her mother's death, a young girl, Baby Doll (Emily Browning), is sent to a mental asylum by her abusive stepfather. When she finds out that she is going to be labotomized by the institution, she plans to escape the facility. Together with four other girls she met in the asylum, she embarks on adventures into an imaginary incredible fantastical world, fighting their way against demonic samurai, World War I German soldiers, orcs, up to dragon, in order to find five items that will become the key to set them free.

This is a guilty pleasure movie. Seeing Zack Snyder's amazing visuals into his created fantasy world, with five beautiful chicks as the main selling point, it seems to be a fun film and a complete package to watch. And with the budget of US$ 82 million poured by the studio, it showed that the filmmakers were not just playing around with this project, as the studio must have expected a big return too from this supposed to be very promising and nicely packed package. I watched the Extended Cut version, which is 17+ minutes longer than the theatrical version. Even so, I cannot tell you whether this extended cut is a better version (I think it should be), as I never have a chance to watch the theatrical version myself. For sure, I was very much awaiting for this movie, as I like Zack Snyder movies and his visionary visuals, and I will tell you what I feel about this movie into 3 segments.

1) THE VISUAL

You should know what you expect when watching a Zack Snyder movie. To experience great visuals must be one of them. His films are always rich in visuals (300, Watchmen, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole). He also has his own style, in which he often uses slow motions in his fight scenes. And watching Sucker Punch was another good experience. The tone of the colors, the special effects, and the stylistic fight scenes in his imaginary world were a great feast of visuals. That's what I love about Snyder, as he always delivered astonishing visuals.

2) THE CAST

Well, beautiful girls usually sell. And to mix them in a fantasy world with incredible visuals is a dream comes true for some people. For guys, it will be even difficult to differentiate whether it is Zack Snyder's visuals or the pretty girls that gives the most attraction at the first place. With the beautiful and sexy cast like Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Vanessa Hudgens and Jamie Chung, what more could you expect. Are they the strongest beautiful cast available? No, as I can imagine other better ones. Are their actings good? Not bad, but very average I must say (for sure, Ms. Hudgens acted pretty bad with her constant smiles, even though I like her in High School Musical). Emily Browning as Baby Doll? She played her role decently and was very nice to watch. Anyway, these actresses served their purpose and their appearances here were sweet like candy, especially in their tight outfits, which made them another feast for the eyes that blend in well with the already perfect visuals. And the most important thing, they kicked asses.

3) THE STORY

Now, here is the mess. The great visuals by Snyder was not supported with a good story. This is the first original story written by Snyder for his movie, even though I like his idea here, but I don't think he delivered his script well. Everytime Baby Doll entered her fantasy world, which was showed when she danced, it felt like playing a videogame, where she and her gang fought their enemies. However, after some times, it became quite tiresome everytime we see Baby Doll started to dance, as I think the fantasy world she was about to enter was somehow distracted the story. It was becoming an obligation that we have to go through one by one. The idea of an imagination inside an imagination was interesting though (reminding us with a dream inside a dream of Inception), but again, it was not depicted effectively and well enough due to the weak story. The background music throughtout the movie, which was quite a lot, was nice to hear, gave this movie a stylistic feel.

Whether there are good or bad reviews, for people who are desperately want to see this, I believe they will watch it eventually anyway. And for some other people, this is the kind of movie that could be watched again and again for some reasons, and become their cult film. I don't think that this is a totally bad movie, it was still entertaining. Great visuals, bad story. If just this movie has a better script, it may have become a better movie. By the way, US$ 89.8 million of total worldwide gross was not good enough for a US$ 82 million budget movie, as it was not yet including marketing and distribution costs. It is unfortunately one of this year's big flop. But isn't it what a cult movie always did? (MJ)

I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE: UNRATED (2010)

MyRating: YY1/2

Director: Steven R. Monroe
Cast: Sarah Butler, Jeff Branson, Andrew Howard, Daniel Franzese, Rodney Eastman, Chad Lindberg
MPAA: Rated R for pervasive strong sadistic brutal violence, rape and torture, nudity and language

A remake of the 1978 controversial rape revenge movie I Spit on Your Grave (Day of the Woman), that was being banned in many countries when it was released due to its graphic violence against woman, which also made the movie to receive the 'cult' status. I haven't watched the old 1978 version, so I cannot compare it to this 2010 version, but what I can tell you is this remake is an extremely sadistic and violence movie that may be too hard for some people to watch.

A young and good looking writer, Jennifer Hills (Sarah Butler), would have never thought that her retreat to a solitary cabin in the woods, to start what should have been her exciting new novel, will become the worst nightmare of her life that will also tear down her entire future. Some local guys, 'disturbed' and 'aroused' by her beauty and aloneness, feel the need to break into her cabin to teach her how they welcome a 'big town' girl, as well as to scare the hell out of her. But their 'scare game' quickly and unbearably turns into physical abuse and assault, as they brutally torture and rape her. In a very terrible and pity condition, the girl somehow escapes the assaulters and goes missing. And the guys believe that she has died, only to later on realize that they will have to reap the crime that they have sown, as Jennifer comes back with a vengeance. And the nightmare turns into theirs, as they have to face the horrifying revenge from the girl, that they could never think of. The much, much worse tortures that will not only make them regret what they have done to her, but also make them wish they never have met her at the first place.

It may look like a 'guilty pleasure' torture porn movie, but it was not (well, maybe the 1st half, but not the 2nd half when things becoming pretty hard to watch). The rape scene was disturbing, as disturbing as the fact that one of the guys still has to answer the phone from her little girl at home, while they are in the middle of assaulting the lady. This guy in his normal life may be seen as a respected man of the society, a good husband and a loving father, but inside is a morally depraved man, who is willing to take all the risks in order to satisfy his animal instincts. What a 'sick' reality and world we are living in.

But if you think the rape scene is the most disturbing part, wait until you see the revenge scenes from the girl, where the guys were being punished in their own different ways based on how they have treated her. The extreme violence graphics and the explicit on-screen brutalities as shown in her revenge were way, way too sadistic and painfully gory, even reached a disgusting level, that will make you very uneasy while watching it. It made me shiver and wanted to skip some of the overly terrifying scenes. What the guys did to the girl was definitely unforgivable and they should ultimately face their punishments, but how she made the guys suffer actually made me felt pity for them.

I think how Jennifer could think of and pull all these kinds of hellish and inhumanity acts was actually not plausible and believable enough, because not only it needs physical strength to beat all these big guys easily, but also it needs an imprinted cold 'hearted' blood to do all that. Maybe if she also saw her boyfriend or husband or child being killed by these guys in front of her, it will be more easily to believe what she became and able to do. But who knows, the hatred may be enough to turn her into the cruelest devil to execute all these brutalities (anyway, they did it to her in the first place), since it is a 'sick-sick' world we are living in. I'm not saying that what the guys did was not deserved the punishments, they did, but I simply think that how the story plot moved and the character development was just not believable enough for a nice and meek lady like her to do all these horror and hard core violence stuffs. It felt a bit rush to move on to the revenge scenes without further character development of Jennifer.

Even though this movie smells like a 'B' class movie with a 'B' class theme, but the movie was actually well produced and the actings were not those of 'B' class actings (which usually will annoy you with very poor actings), as all the actors here acted quite well, including the 'brave' appearance of Sarah Butler. Overall, a decent horror movie, even though I must say the violence was too much for me.

I believe some people will embrace this movie and some will hate it to the bones. If you are not into this kind of genre and your heart can't handle extreme violence, I warn you to avoid this movie. But if you are okay with excessive violence, then this movie may become another 'cult' one. (MJ)

THE GREEN HORNET 3D (2011)

MyRating: YY1/2

Director: Michel Gondry
Cast: Seth Rogen, Jay Chou, Christoph Waltz, Cameron Diaz, David Harbour, Edward James Olmos, Tom Wilkinson
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for sequences of violent action, language, sensuality and drug content

After the sudden death of his conglomerate father, a playboy and lazy heir, Britt Reid (Seth Rogen), finds himself unprepared to be the new owner of his father's giant newspaper empire, "The Daily Sentinel". Ignorant and knows nothing about the business, Britt quickly finds himself unfitted to his new responsibility. But his life changes, when he meets with Kato (Jay Chou), his father's personal mechanic and also a kung fu expert, and both of them accidentally stop a robbery attempt. Inspired by their success and what a good team they may become, Britt decides that they should continue their adventure by fighting the criminals and wiping them out of their city. And Britt becomes a masked vigilante named "The Green Hornet", a new superhero in town, who every criminal shall beware.

This new remake of The Green Hornet was turning into a Seth Rogen movie. As the co-writer, Rogen definitely has all the flexibility and freedom to stamp the script with his style of humors all over the places, to go along with his ignorant and annoying character. He also wrote himself to have a lot of lines in the movie, as he dominated and talked and talked a lot, mostly with pointless conversations. Anyway, he is Seth Rogen, either you will like him, or you will hate him!

If you think about it, this movie is also a showcase of stupidity. If destroying an expensive car (actually 'cars', as there are more than one) and destroying your own house by fighting with your own servant (or partner) are not enough, then consider destroying your own office building, the place where you run your newspaper business. And still, you will see a smile of satisfaction in the face of Seth Rogen, as if he has just won a grand prize. So my suggestion is, don't think about it too much, as the more you think about it, the stupid the film will be. I enjoyed some parts of the movie and felt the other parts of it overly ridiculous. At times, I could smile with some of the jokes, but at the other times, I felt the movie was so childish and overlong, especially when Seth Rogen started his no-brainer dialogs.

Two things still kept my interest though. First, the 'Kato vision' and how 'Kato fights' did look cool. Jay Chou, the most popular Taiwanese singer and song writer nowadays, gave quite a decent performance in his first Hollywood movie appearance here. Even though I have to say that his more serious personality did not exactly match with the craziness of Seth Rogen, but they seemed to pair quite well together in the movie. And second, Christoph Waltz as Chudnofsky. I enjoyed him as the villain. Even though his villain character was more of a comical, but his acting was fun to watch. I think his first scene with James Franco, who appeared cameo as Danny Crystal Clear, was the best part of this movie. Franco was great and hilarious in that short appearance. Cameron Diaz appeared as Lenore Case (or herself?), who smiles in eleven of her ten movie appearances, with her big charming round smile.
The 3D? I watched it in 3D and it was definitely a waste of money, as the 3D added no value to the movie at all. It was a mere conversion from 2D. So, don't waste your money for 3D.
Some people may hate this movie, some others may like it, exactly the same with how people will feel about Seth Rogen as the new generation of comedian. And this two-hour movie with Rogen is a two-hour full of stupidity, madness and nonsense. (MJ)

MEGAMIND 3D (2010)

MyRating: YY1/2

Director: Tom McGrath
Voice: Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, David Cross, Ben Stiller
MPAA: Rated PG for action and some language

Megamind, a big headed blue alien (voice by Will Ferrell) and Metro Man (Brad Pitt) were destined to be enemies since they were babies. Both sent from different planets to the Earth due to the destruction of their own planets, the infant Metro Man landed at a wealthy family's house, while the infant Megamind landed at prison. And both were raised differently, with a different fate. While Metro Man, who has an extraordinary superpower, grew up to become a superhero, the defender of Metro City, at the other hand, Megamind, who has the nature of wickedness and troublemaker inside him, grew up to become a supervillain to rival Metro Man.

When Megamind finally succeeds in overthrowing Metro Man out of the competition, different from what he expects, Megamind quickly becomes bored as there is no one left for him to fight. It is not a fun world without a good-side enemy, since no one is capable to stop his evildoings anymore. So, he creates a new superhero as his enemy, named Titan (Jonah Hill). But instead of helping the world, Titan uses his new power to destroy it. From that moment on, Megamind finds himself in the middle of identity crisis, as he is put in the position to save the helpless world from Titan. And his secret affection for the feisty news reporter, Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey), finally makes him realize that to become a good man is not that bad afterall.

This is a typical DreamWorks animated movie, who focuses more on the comedic side, rather than the dramatic side. An animated movie made purely to have fun with, rather than a movie that will challenge you to think, feel or even reflect something out of it. And the characters created should be funny or should look funny, rather than the characters that possess human heart in them. The same as the dialogs that mainly focuses on funny and silly things, that is supposed to force you to laugh, rather than thoughtful dialogs that will make you smile from the bottom of your heart.

What did I expect anyway? It's an animated movie! And an animated movie is supposed to be fun. And I know many people were having great fun with Megamind and will not agree with what I said. But to be honest, I have to say that I didn't have much fun with this movie as what I've expected when entering the theater. The main reason was because what I saw was a movie full of slapstick (and childish) comedy, with less amount of heart that I like from a smart animated movie. The storyline? I didn't enjoyed it that much either. It was just something below satisfactory for me. When I found myself in the theater where many other people (especially children) laughing while watching this movie, while at the same time I could not laugh as I didn't think it was that funny, then I knew that the story and the jokes just didn't fit me. It was almost the same reason why I didn't enjoy Despicable Me. If I have to compare it with How to Train Your Dragon, another DreamWorks' piece earlier this year, then Megamind definitely has less charm, smart, and touching moments that 'Dragon' has offered and made me fall in love with.

The voices behind the characters were quite good. Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt and Tina Fey did give interesting colors to their characters. The 3D? It was just okay, not really outstanding, as I have seen many more outstanding 3D animated movies this year. In overall, Megamind was just another average animated movie for me this year. (MJ)

DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME (DI RENJIE) (2010)

MyRating: YY1/2

Director: Tsui Hark
Cast: Andy Lau, Li Bingbing, Carina Lau, Chao Deng, Tony Leung Ka-fai

A Chinese epic action-mystery film by Tsui Hark, an influential Hong Kong director and film producer (A Better Tomorrow, A Chinese Ghost Story, The Killer, Once Upon A Time in China, The Lovers, Shanghai Grand, Seven Swords) about Di Renjie, a famous official from the Chinese Tang Dynasty and Empress Wu Zetian's Zhou Dynasty, adapted from the book written by Lin Qianyu titled Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame. The film stars the Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau (As Tears Go By, A Moment of Romance, Running out of Time, Infernal Affairs, House of Flying Daggers) as the exiled Detective Dee (Di Renjie), who is assigned by Empress Wu Zetian (Carina Lau), the only woman in the history of China to assume the title of Empress, to investigate a series of mysterious deaths of officials dying instantly due to burning by flames. Accompanied by Shangguan Jing'er (Li Bingbing), a highly skilled martial artist and the trusted maid of the Empress, Detective Dee has to solve the dark mystery that may threaten to delay the inauguration of Empress Wu, and before there are more victims.

Detective Dee is the answer from China to the Hollywood's Sherlock Holmes. A smart detective who solves big cases. This US$ 13 million budget movie did look grand and lavish, as those of the epic movies of Tsui Hark, with great casts, production design and art direction. The settings, costumes and cinematography were beautiful, including the setting of the giant Buddha bronze statue overlooking the imperial city of China. But somehow, the story did not really live up the promising premise, with some plot holes and tedious moments. It was entertaining, but not as much as I expected it to be, and it was purely because of the not so perfect storyline. This movie also used a lot of CGI, some made the film to look beautiful, but some was not that good, including the rough CGI of the burning flames.

The casts were a feast to the eye though. Andy Lau has been my favorite Hong Kong's actor and pop singer for years. Always love his acting and songs, hardworking ethics, humble and charming personality, charitable spirit, and his good EQ when dealing with people, his fans and the press. He is a living legend and an actor who loved by all ages. And I think he played Detective Dee well. The supporting casts were also gave good performances, including the beautiful Li Bingbing (there was a sexy scene between her and Andy Lau here), Carina Lau, Tony Leung Ka-fai and Chao Deng as the albino Supreme Cop officer.

The martial arts action and fighting sequences were choreographed by Sammo Hung, interesting but not outstanding, and a bit too typical for these kinds of movies, with lots of flying and slow motions. It was still far from the satisfaction that we got when seeing the martial arts sequences of Ip Man.

In overall, this was an interesting movie and quite original in the theme, a detective in the ancient era of China, but I wish it could have been better in the storyline. One thing that I sense is, there might be a sequel for this movie, especially if it is successful. A typical Tsui Hark's. (MJ)