Inception - Best Movie of 2010

amazing action sequence

After I made this post back in August 2009, I promised myself not to watch ANY previews and clips of the movie till its release date. I saw it on 22nd July, the day it was released, fresh and open minded and by god it was worth it.

I'm not sure I'll be making a review (at least not anytime soon) since I'm not back in the blogging mood plus others haven't seen it yet.

I'll just say that it could well be the Best Movie of 2010 in my opinion, as I don't see any better movies coming soon.
With the way I rate movies in this site, I give this movie a 5/5 but I rather not use numbers these days.

I highly recommend this movie, a must watch at least once for everyone, the only way you'll dislike it is if you nip-pick it to death or couldn't follow it.

Movie Review: Coraline

The movie is about a girl named Coraline, who moves in with her parents to their new home the Pink Palace and instantly they ignore her, making her feel neglected. She explores the house and finds this little door but when unlocked it was blocked off. Later that night she goes down to the door again and finds a tunnel which leads to an alternate reality where she is more loved.

Then yadi yadi yada, other world is actually evil and when its all over, her real parents are nice now.

Story may not be the most original although still charming but in my opinion the best thing about the movie is that its using stop-motion animation, too many CGI these days, not enough traditional stuff.

Overall I give it 4 buttons out of 5,
normally a 3 but for the animation style, I knocked it up a notch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coraline_(film)

Mini Review: Smokin' Aces

This movie was a hit for me after rewatchin' it but I dun exactly know why, maybe because the concept of the movie was just very appealing. Basically, Buddy 'Aces' Israel gets a bounty on his head for one million dollars and attracts all these mercernaries, assassins and bounty hunters, all pinned against each other (includin the FBI) to get him. Each of the characters were unique and colourful. ('if ur thinkin colour ur an idiot')

Jeremy Piven plays as Buddy Israel and his acting so damn right awesome. I've only remember him in a few roles usually as a comedian but this movie shows his more than B grade comedian. 'I have not seen Entourage'. Ryan Reynolds always a pleasure to watch, his always done good little roles here and there and also alot of 'indy films' which I think this movie was. Chris Pine, who played one of the assassins, is the guy who played James T. Kirk in the 2009 Star Trek film, which I liked.

Overall, I give this movie 4 of spade out of 5

'I couldnt say aces, thats the movie @_@'
The movie is a well structured and I don't see how it could be any better.
'but it cant get a 5'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokin'_Aces

Inception

Christopher Nolan has directed so many great films, notable for Batman Begins and The Dark Knight but its the other movies his done that makes him more than just a comic-book-movie guy. His filmography isn't too big but are all five star quality pictures. The Prestige is one of my favourite films, Memento is a spectacle and his two other films, Following and Insomnia which I've yet to see, has also been praised.

His taking a break from the Batman series at the moment filming Inception. I am very much looking forward to this movie which is due to release 16th July 2010

'which is a damn long time'

with the teaser attached to Inglourious Basterds. Not much is known about the film yet except for the cast, which Leonardo DiCaprio is to lead and that the film is described "as a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind."

Update:

'The teaser just went online and man... its such a tease XD'
'Can't wait'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inception_(film)

Movie Review: The Shining

The Shining is a 1980 horror movie and as James Rolfe (Cinemassacre) has said, the movie isn't shocking, gory or etc, its something else.. a psychologically mind messing movie. I think it has alot to do with the music. There is no way of explaining these things unless you've seen the movie and yeh, its one complete WTF moment after another.

Jack becomes the care taker for a hotel over the winter with his wife Wendy and son Danny. Either the pressure from work, isolation or haunting influence from the last care taker who murdered his family at the hotel, cause Jack to go on a murderist rampage.

Overall all, Id give it 3 head bashing out of 5
I didn't get it but somehow it is a great film.. I really give it props for the soundtrack.

What your thinking was exactly my thought, this 3 second scene was the most random thing in the entire movie

The Shining

'num num num'

The Shining is showin tonight 8:30pm on Movie Greats. I have not seen this film but this will be a fun night XD
Most likely to review afterwards.

TRON Legacy

Well Comic-Con is just around the corner but nothing has exactly cought my interest yet except now, the 'teaser' trailer for TRON Legacy, the sequel to 1982 Sci-Fi movie.

I watched TRON on the movie channel a while ago and was abit suprise I was actually able to sit through the whole thing, I thought I'd be disinterested by its ya know.. being an old film but proved wrong.

To sum up the story, guy goes into the computer and in the cyber world must defeat the main AI computer and play through some retro "video games".

Concept was cool and definatly a big contribution to the Sci-Fi genre.

Without further ado*, here's the trailer shown in Comic-Con



Light Cycles FOR THE WIN

Mini Review: The Hangover

Finally watched this movie, had high expectation because of Old School and the concept/trailers were just so good. The movie really delivered, it remined me of 'Harold & Kumar going to White Castle', a series of WTF events over and over again in near real-time.

Four friends go to Vegas for their mate's bachelor party, over night they wake up not remembering a thing and found that the groom is gone and then a whole lot of shit happens.

Recommended for people who has enjoyed such MA15+ comedy movies

I give it 4 drugged shots out of 5

Transformer Designs

This should be my final post relating to Transformers ROTF cause yeh, getting abit tired of it.

I did enjoy some of the designs for the transformers, alot of it from Constructicons

Arcee


Demolisher/Scavenger


Mixmaster


Rampage


Sideswipe


Sideways


Overload

This concept art just surfaced on the net of the Decepticon Overload who didn't exactly appear in the movie.

Skywarp

This transformers wasn't made for the movie but the game I think but I like this design to the current Starscream with the lengthy shoulders

Mini Review: Transformers ROTF

I'm never going to watch a normal movie in IMAX again, unless I get perfect seats.

Top 5 Pros' and Cons'

'I'm reviewing as an old-school-Transformers fanboy and one that hated the first movie'

Pros
- Decepticons were given alot more lines and character development, mainly Megatron and Starscream
- Jetfire and Ravage were the coolest, Jetfire cause his a Blackbird and Ravage cause his Ravage
- Other cool transformer designs were the constructicons (EXCLUDING Devastator)
- No annoying human characters
- Soundwave although really only as a cameo(fan-service) character

'Some people are still complaining the fact that Soundwave isn't like a Cassette/CD player although I'm quite happy he was a satellite rather than a car of some sort, I mean come on, satellite, telecommunication, sound-wave, it works'

Cons
- Crappy action sequence, mainly the melee fights where the shots were close-ups
- Optimus Prime was abit out of character, ie "No Mercy" "Head Shots" "PWNAGE"
- Autobots get no character development
- Skids and Mudflaps were just not funny/interesting
- Recycling, ie same constructicons everywhere, Blackout reused but defined as different character, Bonecrusher reused and dozens of Decepticons in Protoforms

I give it 2 dead Optimus out of 5

IMAXED

Was planning to watch Transformers 2 on the IMAX today but couldn't. My little brother went however and apparently turning up an hour early isn't good enough, he was in the back of the line... man Transformers is causing quite a stur*

Revenge of The Fallen

Well with Transformers 2 officially released a few days ago, the film has already grossed $550 million worldwide. With a budget of $195 million, Michael Bay must be laughing his way through the recession XDXD

EDIT (July 1st): Sorry, the film just grossed $450 million worldwide
still alot

Signing Off, for a while..

Ok, the examination timetables has been released and I was then hit with the face of reality that there isn't much time left to study/catch up.

In reaction, this will be my last post till 24th June which is the day of my last exam.
'yeh I'm going to post right after the exam.. maybe...'
'if I'm posting from now till 24th June, it means I'm procrastinating'

But before I go, here are some things I was going to post over the next few days

Movie: Star Trek

Over the past month, I've been anticipating Star Trek, Terminator Salvation, Transformers: ROTF and Where the Wild Things Are. No I have not seen it yet nor am I a Star Trek fanboy but watching the trailers makes me very hyped about the movie because it looks like such a 'good epic thriller movie'. I'll be seeing it soon but I won't review it not because I'll be on hiatus but I don't feel like reviewing new release movies. DragonBall was an acception because it was such a fail.

TV: Beautiful Cooking 2

Hong Kong's TVB has aired the second season to the sucessful reality-ish show Beautiful Cooking. Think Iron Chef with Cooking Mama and Dancing with the Star. Its a family friendly comedy show where female celebrities cook meals for a round of judges and two-thirds of the time the cooking is just so bad its funny.
Got to point this out.. The judges have like maid helpers through the show but they changed the girls this season with like super models which I didn't like, season one they were cutie girls, now they're just.. well.. lady's 'yeh I notice these things... its healthy'

Slice Of Life: Australian Dance Festival

ADF is a brand new festival starting this year and hopefully for many more years to come where you can meet and gather together with many dancers across Australia.
There's going to be 2 days of dance workshop where you can attend and try out the various of styles offered.
There will be exhibits from dance schools, dance retailers and services which support dancers.
Also there's going to be 5 shows to watch over the 3 days with 'It Takes Two' I assume focusing on paired dancing, 'All Things Contemporary' which consists of mainstream dance styles from Hip Hop to Contemporary and 'A Celebration of Cultures' which I think is like the asian/indian/brazilian dances.
The other two shows are on saturday and sunday afternoon with under 16 year olds.

The tickets seems abit confusing at least to me.. so its..
$35-45 for tickets to the shows individually
$200 for a day pass to go to the workshop and both shows
$275 for a full pass which is day pass but both days
'yeh the math doesn't add up'
'so you can't go to the workshop unless you get the day/full pass'
'There's also an after party each night so hhmm, whats a party with dancers going to be like.. dance off's??'

I have exams on the 15th and 16th June so I won't be able to attend all three days
I am performing in the dance festival in the 'All Things Contemporary' so I got a Performer Pass which is basically Full Pass with extra goodies. Because of that, I am only going on Saturday.

For more information go to
http://www.australiandancefestival.com.au/

So till next time, peace out
shoop da whoop

Walt Disney Picture's The Princess and the Frog

After 3 so-so CGI movies over the past 5 years, Disney decided to take another chance with 2D animation. It's obvious the selling point to this film is because it's attempting to re-live the Disney Classic's but from looking at the first trailer, I have my doubts.

Disney discontinued 2D animation after 3 movies that bombed at the box office, namely Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), Treasure Planet (2002), Home on the Range (2004).
There is only one real explaination for why these movies bombed/sucked... the story/writing. Respectively to the 3 movies, uninteresting, makes little sense and stupid.

After that, they decided 3D CGI movies were making money, like Shrek, Ice Age and Pixar movies. They then produced Chicken Little, Meet the Robinsons and Bolt. I didn't exactly watch these movies, but from what I've heard, only Bolt is reasonable.

The teaser and trailer for Princess and Frog, showed alot of "ha" jokes and tells me the story might be compromised for more laughs. I hope it won't fail.

Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6DmEgtibOg
'I didn't wanna Embed it'

Movie Review: Ned Kelly

Last saturday night, I was flicking through the channels to see what was on.. It was showing Hot Fuzz and Ned Kelly. My first thought was 'OMG Hot Fuzz, WOOT' but I have seen Hot Fuzz like a thousand times so i decided to watch Ned Kelly instead.

[Plot]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Kelly_(2003_film)#Plot

[Story]
_+ believable way of a man growing to become "Ned Kelly"
_- cops are always evil right?!

[Character]
_+ Heath Ledger did an alright job.. nothing too bad nor too good to mention
_+ Whats a Naomi Watts..? Oh the girl from King Kong (2005).. she was ok.. I guess
_- Orlando Bloom was being, well, Orlando Bloom.. the player that has sex with any female on screen
_- Geoffrey Rush, which I've only seen in Pirates of the Caribbean series, didn't really do much in this movie besides potraying the real life character
_+ 'I did find it funny however when his character yells FIRE.. thought I was watching Pirates XD'

[Action/Romance]
_+ Wasn't exactly Epic gun action but not too bad either...
_- The romance between Heath Ledger and Naomi Watts serves absolutely nothing to the plot at all, you could have cut their scenes out and the movie would've been the same (maybe even better)
_- The romance itself wasn't that good either, eg ZERO chemistry

[Final Thought]
After watching the movie I had to wiki about the real Ned Kelly and from the looks of it the movie was pretty historically accurate 'according to wikipedia'. For an aussie I really didn't know much about Ned Kelly.. Not exactly why this movie BOMBED in the box office, maybe 'cause it didn't really classify as a western film. There was alot of plot holes and useless moments throughout the film 'eg. the romance' but a alright pop-corn movie.

'therefore'
Overall I give it 3 trash-can-helmet out of 5



Next movie I may review would be Casshern (2004)
Although I might change how I'd be reviewing these movies

'I think I've pretty much completed Resident Evil 5 as much as I can and I could review it.. but how do you review a game... its so much more complicated than movies'

Movie Review: The Terminator

I've seen Terminator 2: Judgement Day like a thousand times and only seen The Terminator about half a dozen times back 10yrs ago. So when I saw that it was on TV friday night, I just had to watch it since I'm so hyped for Terminater Salvation.

[story]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Terminator#Plot

[story]

Character
_+ The Terminator is the 'I R SERIOUS' bad azz throughtout the whole movie
_+ Sara Connor? She doesn't exactly 'evolve' in this movie that much but we all know what happens in 2 XD
_+ Kyle Reese, he is so Solid Snake XD.. but yeh he was a good hero character that gets given a background story
_+ All good, no overacting like the 3rd movie..



Plot
_+ Amazing for its time, not sure if it was the first 'robots taking over the world' movie but it was definatly responsible for the popularity of the genre
_+ Everything is explained clearly, Kyle wastes no time with details

Action
_+ Good old school gun action...
_+ The car chases was alright..

Final Thought
With all the Sci-Fi movies showing at the time, I'm suprised that they didn't just make a movie about the future but James Cameron thought out of the box and created such a classic. As a movie it was very straight forward and didn't make you think too much outside of the plot. This is a pretty bad review, considering that there really isn't much shits to talk about it.

meh.. Overall I give it 4 Sarah Connor's out of 5

why not 5 out of 5, 'cause even though its a great movie.. I don't feel compelled to watch it over and over again. Not exactly sure whats missing, maybe because it was a 1980 film...

'next I'd be reviewing Ned Kelly starring late Heath Ledger that was showing last night'

Movie Review: Dragon Ball Evolution

My Ratings
1 of 5: Skip
2 of 5: So-So, watch if you really can't find anything else to do
3 of 5: Alright movie that has its ups and downs
4 of 5: Great movie, a must watch at the very least
5 of 5: It gets better and better as you watch it

"You can bet there's going to be a sequel.. ~__~"



Dragon Ball is a Manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama which was serialized in the manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995 (on a weekly basis, quite exhausting).It has since been adapted into 3 anime series and inspired a generation.

Then along came DragonBall Evolution...

Now to review this movie properly, you have to see it in the eyes of a DragonBall Fan and people who are unfamiliar with the series.

[Spoiler Starts]

"nah!? I'm not gonna write out the whole movie... its not worth it..."

[Spoiler Ends]

[Actually, spoiler kinda continues]

[Standard Review]

Character
- Main character Goku was for some reason your typical loser in
Dhighschool who can't seem to do anything, infact his actually
Dtrained in ancient martial art and the ability to use Ki.
- Main female lead Chi Chi also has knowledge of Ki, besides that
Dthere really isn't a reason she'd be attracted to Goku unless she
Dhas a thing for idiots. Oh yeh and she's like 'the popular girl' in
Dat school or something
- Roshi was your comedic character.
- Bulma wants to be famous, Yamcha wants to be rich and Piccolo
Dwants to rule the world... thats it..

Plot
+ Plot was, ok...
- It was strange how the secondary characters believed in the
Dwhole DragonBall nonsense so easily.
- At no point was Goku exactly hinted to be Oozaru but when it
Ddoes happen, it was less than spectacular.
- Piccolo wanted the DragonBalls to rule the world, not exactly
Dsure how the DragonBalls would help the antagonist from the
Dstart which was the whole point of the movie.

Action
+ The best action in the movie I'd have to say was when Goku
Dfaces the highschool jocks 'cause it was mostly wide-shots and
Dchoreograph was very clear.
- The Ki actions are weak at best, most of the time its people
Dwith their palm out and messy blurs.
- Even the guns during the gun actions are like the Ki blast
Dwhich is odd.
- Most of the hand to hand combat are close-up's so you can't
Dcompletely tell whats going on.

[DragonBall Fan Review]

Its one thing to adapt a show, its another to change it completely. A DragonBall fan would just complain alot so I'd just stop here, I don't need to tell a fanatic whats wrong with the movie, just watch the trailers.

I give the movie
1 DDRRAAGGOONN out of 5
Its on the borderline of an alright background movie

Update: Shadow Of The Colossus Movie

'Is he saying this is going to be an easy movie to make!? WHAT!!!!!' @_@



Justin Marks respond to the announcement
http://www.riskybusinessblog.com/2009/04/colossus-writer-speaks-out.html

quote from 'nightelfmohawk'

"What's nice about this game is that it's so
sparse so you can start building right away."

What is there to build? The
game is more gameplay than story so why even write it? Why do these Hollywood
guys think that something already built needs to add more. The whole idea of
SotC was for the story to be interpreted by the fans.

Why ruin a
masterpiece?

'Exactly!'

[DragonBallEvolution tomorrow]

My Take: Shadow Of The Colossus - The Movie

Shadow Of The Colossus has been announced to be made as a featured film by SONY PICTURES, produced Kevin Misher and screenplay written by Justin Marks.

Colossus is one of my favourite titles in the pile of 40+ PS2 games I have. Although it really only has 16 colossi bosses to fight, each had very unique gameplay methods and the way to get to each of them was quite the journey itself with stunning scenery. Travelling from beach, to vast grasslands, to deep and dark ruins and caves, to deserts and if you stopped every now and then you'd find intersting details nearly everywhere. The Colossus are the main feature and my favourite Colossi was the Flying Serpent in the desert.



There is really no way for me to review this game, you must experience it yourself to really know how amazing it is.

Now that the fact Hollywood is making the movie makes me feel "OMG, not another game -> movie adaption". Colossus, like the Metal Gear Solid series, has a very cinematic feel already and should be left alone but it would be very interesting see how they'd take with it. Problem may be that Justin Marks is screenwritting it, who wrote the screenplay for the recent Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. Although, do we blame SF's epic F 'cause of the scriptwriter or the director? This is just early news so things may change, or event get canceled *cough wink*

Long story short, I dislike the idea, but would be interesting to see how it turns out.
Also, too early to make any assumptions

http://www.riskybusinessblog.com/2009/04/shadow-of-the-colossus-to-become-a-movie.html

Movie Review: Planet of the Apes (2001)

I saw this movie on channel Seven the other night and wasn't expecting much cause I heard isn't good.As the intro credit rolls, I saw it was directed by Tim Burton.Usually I might research a movie before I see it but this so happen to show on TV so I was unprepared to like WIKI it or something.Anyway, with Tim Burton titled, I thought "So is this going to suck" cause he makes pretty good movies, what with recent 'Charlie and Chocolate Fac', 'Sweeny Todd' and upcoming 'Alice in Wonderland'

[SPOILER STARTS]

Movie starts off with your space station doing deep space research with then leads one thing to another, having the main character Capt Leo Davidson, played by Mark Wahlberg, heading towards an anomaly to save his pet ape or something. He then ofcourse travels through time, ends up in the future and crashes down onto an unknown planet.

'Your doing it wrong'
He then encounters humans and apes in an all out confusing and gets cought by the apes. When jailed with a couple of 'damn dirty humans', one being your typical blonde chick, he encounters a she-ape who for some reason really really likes humans.

'Damn his a fine looking human'
The she-ape helps release the main character and the blonde chick, at then which the civilised space man starts to make a break for it, bringing with him the blonde chick, her family and the she-ape. He goes back to his ship to get supplies, a tracking beacon to find help and a gun which gets broken in 3mins. They get to a ship, apparently its the space station at the start of the movie. Supposingly, when he took off to rescuse his pet ape, the space station decided to follow, which like him crash landed on the planet but apparently didn't go through time.

'A man's only as big as the weapon he carries'
In any case, the space dudes and dudettes on board then gets over runned by the chimps and chimpettes and there you go, thats how the planet was infested with apes and humans apparently EPIC FAILED IT. The main character then does an uninspiring brave heart speech to his 'dirty humans' and fight with the army of apes heading their way. Eventually his pet ape, who is the only one that ever make a safe landing, shows up and stops the fight between humans and apes.

'Where is the rebel base?'
The main character then gets on the ape ship and leaves without him to head back through the anomaly hoping to go home. He gets to earth and see that everything in apes now, everything looks modern but just ape-man everywhere. THE END

I've seen the old school 1968 Planet of the Apes, and the difference between this and that one was that humans can't talk in 1968, 2001 they can, the famous 'damn dirty ape' was changed to 'damn dirty human', 'damn them all to hell' was said by an ape instead of a human and the planet was not earth in 2001.

[SPOILER ENDS]

Character

Your main selfish character that can't do anything unless his got a gun, no development from start to finish

Your main human chick, that does nothing but kisses the main character in the end

Your main bad guy who will never have a change of heart

Your main ape chick that has no explaination for her love for humans and also kisses the main character in the end

Your other apes who goes from evil to nice so quick and easy

overall, bad character development all around

Story

Way to many plot holes that makes no sense

Humans that can talk and stuff and still fail at everything

Unexplained ending, just made no sense

Can't remember them all...

Action

Its about as much as you can get from ape hand to hand combat

Alot of wire jumping for the apes

Final Thought

In the end, it tried to take on a different approach the planet of the apes story but causes more questions and headaches than answers. Not sure if it was trying to be realistic. The movie wasn't too bad, definalty not a highly recommended movie. Costume and makeup was top notch though. Its a movie that you wouldn't mind going through if your bored but would cause you to complain about crappy characters and story.

Overall, I give it 2 damn dirty apes out of 5