Movie Review - One Missed Call

One missed call is based on the similarly name, Original Japanese movie “Chakushin Ari”. Following the footsteps of “The Grudge” and “The Ring” series, all American Remakes trying to ride on the successes of the Japanese horror genre, will One Missed Call prove to be a movie to be missed instead?

"Its getting cold here"

Beth Raymond (Shannyn Sossamon) is skeptical when her best friend says her childhood friend dies after apparently receiving a voicemail received in the future which foretells her own death in her own voice….

However when she sees it happens to her friends in exactly the same way with no logical explanation at all, she gets the help of Detective Jack Andrews (Edward Burns), whom himself is mystified with his sister’s recent death in a similar fashion.

As they try to find out the source of the calls, Beth herself receives one missed call from a friend she just witness her death a few seconds ago….

One of the main reasons why Japanese horror shows are so successful is the way the story drives the movie, keeping the suspense right to the end. And to do that, the character development, focusing on the main character, of course has to be immersed together with the storyline.

Using a total replicate of the plot from the original japanese version, Shannyn acting as the main character has her work cut out. However her acting does not let down the plot one bit. The most commendable part should be the change of emotions from appearing calm over her friends’ death to being panicky when she receives the missed call herself.

For those who haven’t watched the Japanese version, One Missed Call promises to keep the audiences freezed to the seats with the classic sudden scares in between the show. But the most entertaining and talked about part will probably be the answer to how and why it all started, which will be revealed right at the end of the show…

For those who did watch the original version, the plot is almost exactly the same, so the only new thing would be the more advanced graphics display, which is a welcome plus for the show.

Now I just hope I do not get any voicemail dated in the future…..



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Illogical Scene detected! (Contains spoilers!)
When Leann (Beth’s best friend) is struck by a train and dies, her body seems to be still in one whole piece, while her hand is dialing the phone! I wonder how is that possible..

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Movie Review - 30 Days of Night

Quotes from critics on the internet and newspapers mostly agreed on one thing about this movie; “A new form of vampires that move like never seen before”
Movies like “Underworld” and the “Blade” trilogy modernized the theme of vampire movies.
30 Days of Night promises to revitalize the savage ways of these ancient monsters.

"I'll run to fight another day!"

Story
The setting of 30 Days of Night (30) can be said to be similar to most vampire/zombie movies. Helpless people trapped in towns/countries struggling against the more powerful adversaries. However, (30) differentiates itself through the white snowish background of the northernmost are of America, with an entire month of sunless days, providing lots of potential for pure graphic scenes.

Eben Oleson (Josh Harnett) is a responsible Sheriff who takes good care of the town’s residents. There’s an unspoken problem with his wife, Stella Oleson (Melissa George), who is trying to get to the airport and leave the country before the first of 30 nights starts. Unfortunately her car is damaged in an accident and she calls Eben for help. She tries to persuade Eben by saying she promises to listen to him as he drives her there. Eben is disappointed by the lame excuse and asks his colleague Billy Kitka (Manu Bennett) to help her instead.



Stella wasn’t able to make it on time and she bumps into Eben in the diner where they meet a stranger who tries to threaten the owner and gets escorted by Eben to the jail cell instead. The stranger soon foretells ‘they are coming’ and advises Eben and his family to hide, though it would be a fruitless attempt. Just as Eben probes the stranger to reveal more, the power goes off and Eben goes to the power station where he bumps upon the first of many gruesome discoveries…………



Characters / Acting

Heartthrob Josh Harnett seldom acts as the hero in the shows he has starred in, even when he is the main character in most of them. This makes it hard to distinguish himself as a leading actor. However as Sheriff Eben, his constant and mostly solo efforts to protect the town residents from being killed really showed off the emotional and heroic side of his acting.Melissa George’s acting, on the other hand, was not very convincing. The only part I could felt she and Josh were lovers came only at the last scene..



Finally, its time to talk about the vampires. Lets just start by saying that these monstrous creatures epitomize the words eerie and evil combined together. Normally, one or more vampires in movies will have a soft side. In (30), they just want to drink blood and eat flesh, acting like beasts to fill their hunger. Their appearances are distorted to depict their evilness with razor shark-like teeth to boot.
Sticking together as a squadron and acting on the orders of their leader , those humans who do not act fast enough, feel like helpless prey against a scheming and ruthless predator.



Summary

In all, (30) actually makes you scared of the vampires. Unlike in other similar themed movies where you wished the monsters will appear and kill more people to earn back the ticket money, it was almost unbearable sometimes to see the way the residents getting carved apart heartlessly. 30 Days of Night has shown how vampires should be portrayed as, Pure Evil.

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Movie Review - Resident Evil: Extinction

The first Resident Evil movie was a hit when it first came out in 2002...Its sequel, Resident Evil: Apocalypse was even more impressive, introducing new characters (Babelicious Sienna Guillory as Jill and the awesome Nemesis)with tons of action.

Hot babe Ali Larter lends a hand

But will Extinction retain the reputation of its predecessors?


Story

The deadly zombie T-virus has not been contained despite the efforts of Umbrella Corporation. Now it has spread across the world and almost everyone is an undead, while even oceans are drying up and tress are withering, turning earth into a hideous desert.



Alice (Milla Jovovich - UltraViolet), a bio-weapon project developed by Umbrella Corporation, still alive after the events five years ago, travels alone (not wanting to harm anyone who always get hurt when with her) to try and put a stop to the mayhem.

But she soon come across Claire Redfield’s (Ali Larter - Heroes) convoy who together with Carlos Oliveira, Alice’s friend from Apocalypse (Oded Fehr – The Mummy), just want to stay alive and find other survivors.

Alice with the help of her friends, finally reaches one of the headquarters of Umbrella but finds out from Dr. Isaacs (Iain Glen) that she is actually the cure to all of this….

Characters / Acting

Ali Larter fills up the space of Sienna Guillory from Apocalypse as a new babe character from the game series, Claire Redfield. She portrayed her character well, showing true emotions as a leader over her friends’ loss. But it was a shame, she was only involved in one action scene which actually showed she deserved more fighting action than that.

Oded Fehr similarly acted well, but with more action scenes credited to him, which was what the movie seem to lack of as a whole. His heroics near the end of the show was a touching moment as well.

Milla Jovovich as the film’s pivotal character, once again kicks more zombie asses with her flying stunts and now wielding two new deadly sickles for maximum damage.

Her fighting scenes have been the main highlight since the trilogy started, so it might have been refreshing if there were more scenes of Claire combining with her when dealing with the zombies. The ever-loveable zombie dogs were also not given enough limelight (Literally) as the scenes were too poorly lit and more slow action could have been used.

Summary:

Paul W.S. Anderson has been writing the script for all three films and also directed the first film. Perhaps this has led to lack of innovation, leading to repeated backgrounds (Mansion, Laser beam room) and little story development.

There was abit more character development in Extinction. But it made the movie feel like 28 days later or Dawn of the dead, showing people hiding and trying to survive. The trilogy was more known for its action scenes but there was too much deliberation and emotions in Extinction, which was probably not what the audience come to expect from this particular film.

More unique creatures/monsters could have been introduced (Cerberus or Hunters). Instead we get to see a bunch of lame crows picking on children that should been pictured in low budget films instead. And I would have rather seen Apocalypse’s Nemesis one more time than the final “boss” in Extinction, who did not really put up a fight against Alice. And who can forget the classic appearance of lickers in Apocalpyse…

All in all, Extinction feels like an expansion set for a successful game, with few new characters/creatures and little story development. The lack of action this time round does not help its cause.

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Movie Review - Fantastic Four : Rise of the silver surfer

This movie is the third blockbuster sequel in a month, After the disappointments of Spiderman 3 and Pirates of the Carribean “3” for many fans of their previous episodes, there was not many high expectations of Fantastic Four “2”.

Hothead vs Mr Cool

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Flame on!
However watching the show turned out to be a relatively exhilarating experience, with numerous action packed scenes.

With the silver surfer being the main instigator for the demise of earth itself, most of the show centered on the slick looking character. Thankfully so, as the chase between him and the human torch (Chris Evans) set the pace for a highly charged show.


The powers of the fantastic four were again put on show, with an interesting twist this time. The human torch after coming into direct contact with the surfer, was able to switch powers with the rest and this provided loads of opportunities on how they use their powers.


The saving scene at the London eye and perhaps more evidently the final showdown with Dr Doom presented this new element perfectly. (Not to forget the near naked scene of Jessica Alba after switching powers with his brother)


Fours a Joy

One of the more interesting aspects of the first Fantastic Four movie was to see how the four characters interacted with other. This was rightfully portrayed again and even developed further in this show.


It was especially comical to see the way Johnny (Chris) cracks jokes on The Thing’s (Michael Chiklis) awkward appearance and actions, but still remaining buddies in the end.


The voluptuous Jessica Alba looked more at ease than in the first show, which can be seen in her longer screen time than the other characters with the silver surfer. Ioan Gruffudd, an established actor had no problems too acting as the leader of the pack.


Worthy sequel?
Fantastic Four : Rise of the Silver Surfer was definitely more action packed less talk (Spiderman 3), which was really what many viewers of this category would want to see. The jokes were also more hilarious and blended well with the flow of the movie (Pirates “3”).


The only complaint could be the show was so enjoyable that when it ended, it felt too quick. And they should have given Galactus more respect by showing at least his face then to just show a cloud of smoke…


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Interesting fact: Silver surfer was actually not all CGI animated, He was acted by Doug Jones, the same actor who portrayed the pale man in Pan's Labyrinth

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Movie Review - Night at the Museum

Feeling down? Or just Looking for something to cheer you up? Movies starring Funny-face Ben Stiller never ceases to make the audience laugh and Night at the Museum certainly carries on the trend.

Together with the evergreen Robin Williams and Ben’s favorite partner in chief, Owen Wilson, you know it will be a cranky and wild ride.

Feeling right at home

Ben’s character, Larry Daley is a divorced father who finds a job at the Museum of Natural History as a night guard. He is glad to find a stable job, and furthermore this is a good chance to impress his son by giving him a tour around the museum. However, things do not seem to be all peaceful when the sun sets down…

Ben as usual, is able to act naturally in scenes requiring him to be a careless and reckless guy, which makes the movie flow with laughter, just by looking at his actions.


Ben Stiller vs Dexter the monkey

Owen Wilson, his all time buddy, lends a hand acting as a miniature cowboy, similarly spurting nonsense all the while and committing his usual reckless acts. The witty Robin Williams on the other hand, brings a sense of adventure into the movie, acting as Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, riding a horse at that.

The supporting cast is the main highlight however, with all sorts of artifacts and living things appearing, including a gigantic wooly mammoth, a gum loving Easter Island head and a mischievous yet lovable Capuchin monkey.

Dum Dum wants Gum Gum

My ultimate favorite though is the crude and loud speaking Attila the Hun, who just wants to tear a person’s limbs apart. Oh did I forget to mention a ferocious T-Rex running around the hallway?
The mayhem that ensues kept me glued to the screen as Ben struggles to keep control of the museum with his unconventional ways before the museum opens in the morning.


The computer graphics generated characters mixed well with the real life animals and humans to make the movie a great adventure to watch and the slapstick humor will certainly keep a whole family entertained throughout the show.

Coffee, anyone?

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Movie Review - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Another blockbuster sequel following the release of spiderman 3 just a few weeks ago, Pirates 3 similarly had a lot to live up to, following the successes of its previous two shows.

Guys..I think we should take a break..

The focus will once again be on Johnny Depp’s portrayal of the witty Jack Sparrow who after being devoured by the giant kraken in the last show, will be saved by his swashbuckling compatriots, not because they missed him, of course…

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Arrr…Waste of time…

Alas the show proved to be a major disappointment…Sure, the charming Depp is still around with his manly locks and quirky acts. Even then, the director Gore Verbinski seemed to exploit on this character just too much, with too much screen time used to just try and get a laugh out of him. As if one wasn’t enough, most of the scenes showed two, even a whole ship of Jack Sparrows! Was this really necessary? Suddenly, Jack’s usually pleasing tone starts to become irritating…


The amount of screen time used for jack was also probably the reason why no new INTERESTING characters were introduced this time round. Chow Yun Fatt, you said? All he brought to the show was probably some “Asian” presence, enhanced by the wordings “Welcome to Singapore” spoken by chow, shown everytime in the trailer, perhaps a marketing gimmick to attract more asian audiences to the show.


Like Chow, the other pirates kings, were also introduced to try and spice up the action. Well they sure did that… Creating a racket at a pirates meeting, giving up some poor old artifacts of their own, showing Asians can paint their whole face vividly white or speak in a high pitched voice and then?


Just showed up smiling and cheering near the end of the show, after leaving jack’s ship to fight davy jones and the East India company’s entire armada of ships alone… And there I was anticipating they would exhibit their own unique type of ships or even crewmembers with special skills or features to use in this climatic battle.. How wrong I was, what a woeful sight they proved to be…


Wait, there is one more “major” character i have missed out. How could anyone forget the great and highly feared sea goddess, Calypso turning in her true form…A giant human figure last seen from B grades movies like “Attack of the 50 foot Woman”.. Worst was to come for the audience when she evaporates into millions of small little harmless crabs that dive peacefully into the deep blue sea. Awwww…


Something got to be right

However ,the show was not ENTIRELY a flop, thanks to the return of Captain Barbosa and most importantly, his pet monkey, with the name of Jack but certainly more hilarious than Depp this time round. Barbosa’s acting made him look like a true pirate from head to toe, which made the show more “piratey” and you relate more to his character. Jack the monkey created more laughter from the audience than all the other characters in the entire show! That really summed up the show.


The final battle between Davy Jones’ ship, The Flying Dutchman and Jack’s Black Pearl in a swirling maelstrom also provided much needed entertainment.


But…the inclusion of the scene in between, where Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) proposes to Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) was both a turnoff and unusual. Keira’s reaction of “I don’t think this is a good time” should have been heeded by the director. Orlando’s stone-less facial acting (as usual) does little to improve the scene.


One final frustrating weird moment arrives when the East India Company’s leading ship lead by the cold blooded Lord Beckett meets Jack’s Black Pearl and his companions with obviously more cannons and weaponry… Watch the show and you would feel as flabbergasted as I am..

What a dissssapointmenttt..

Final words
I do appreciate this is a Walt Disney film, whose main aim is always to amuse people. But the previous shows presented to us interesting new characters (Skeletons at night, Davy Jones) and they looked fresh and provided much needed entertainment and laughter (Jungle scene in Pirates 2).


The fact that some of the scenes in Pirates 3 were shot simultaneously during Pirates 2 showed through the lack of new ideas. The estimated budget of U$300 million certainly could have been used to create new CGI creatures like the kraken, instead of trying to think so hard to make us laugh with multiple versions of Jack Sparrow…

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Movie Review : The Fountain

"What if you could live forever” was the catchy phrase printed on The Fountain’s movie posters. But as the movie unfolds, you may think maybe it should be “What if you could LOVE forever” instead.

Watch as Hugh Jackman tries to save his beloved (Rachel Weisz) through a timeline spanning a millenium, as a spanish conquistador, a modern-day scientist and a 26th century astronaut…

(watch the trailer here)

Neverending Struggle...

The first scene shows one of Hugh Jackman’s role as a conquistador(Tomas), breaking through a horde of tribesman and eventually getting killed by their leader, a priest-looking person... What was his purpose for getting there in the first place?

Right after that, we see his other role as an astronaut wandering in space, around a mystifying, yet seemingly withering grand tree. Rachel Weisz appears vividly in clothing that belongs to another timeline, smiling to Hugh, yet making him sad…Why was this so?

Hugh’s final role in the modern time, is a scientist(Tommy) using all his strength and willpower to try and find a cure for his wife(Weisz), already losing hair due to cancer…Will he be able to succeed?

Thoughts

The story as you may already see, weaves through the different timeline and characters, connecting them together in 'Memento' style. This makes for a very intriguing movie, gluing you to the screen, wondering how it all falls into place.

Hugh Jackman’s touching and passionate acting will make you feel for his characters and almost urge for the ending to be a happy one. Rachel Weisz was also convincing in her roles as a optimistic and mature partner.

The music scorecomplemented with the scenes very well. Soft melancholy notes express the characters’ feeling of sorrow and yearning beautifully. It immerses you into Hugh’s struggle to save Weisz and certainly brings in the correct kind of mood. Of course, this is expected from Clint Mansell, responsible for the famous theme for Requiem for a Dream

The visual effects can be considered stunning for a trimmed down budget movie. Especially during the scenes showing Hugh standing alongside the tree, around stars and the never ending space. Most of the lightings in the show are dimmed, reflecting the feeling of the movie very well too.

The Fountain is an amazing fairytale to watch, and I certainly recommend it to those who like a romantic story, especially for lovebirds, making you cherish each other more.

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