Ben Affleck conquers with The Town

The Town
Directed by: Ben Affleck
Starring: Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner, John Hamm, Rebecca Hall
Written by: Ben Affleck, Peter Craig, Aaron Stockard (adapted from Chuck Hogan's Prince of Thieves)

Ben Affleck came back to the Boston-set-crime subgenre after Gone Baby Gone with The Town. While I can’t say that it is a better movie to ‘Gone’, The Town better showcases Affleck’s capability as a director. Adapted from Chuck Hogan’s novel Prince of Thieves, the movie tells quiet a conventional story about a career criminal (bank robber to be exact) who falls in love and decides to do that one last job and get a peaceful life. It is Affleck’s deft direction that makes the movie a joy to behold. The Town is more action-oriented than past similar movies like The Departed and Gone and the director shows his ability in directing fast-paced, intense shootouts and car chases sequences.

The Town’s screenplay gives extra care towards dialogues and character interactions and development. It never rushes itself just to arrive at another action scene. In fact, no one should ever go to see the film and expect a mindless action flick. That is why the movie is so wonderfully cast to fill up its rich characters, and what performances do the actors give. Ben Affleck himself gives a powerful performance as a man in a moral crossroads. Gone are the memories of his derided performances in blockbusters like Daredevil and Armageddon. Two senior actors Chris Cooper and Pete Postlethwaite show off their acting virtuosos even within short screen times. Recent Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner gives the best performance of the film in a mercurial and trigger-happy role. Whenever Jem, his character, is onscreen, we can feel the lingering and menacing feeling in the air. The actresses, Rebecca Hall and Blake Lively, impress as well in adding real pathos.

There is a scene, the best scene of the movie, between Affleck's, Hall's and Renner's characters in an outdoor café that shows that thrills can be built up as well in a conversation scene as that in a gun battle. It also shows that although the film boasts somewhat spectacular action set-pieces, they simply serve to spice up rather than sacrifice the narrative.

The Town is a well-cast crime drama with a predictable but riveting story. Ben Affleck could be the next Clint Eastwood after all and he could perhaps one day direct a better Matt Damon vehicle.

My Rating: 7.5/10

Reviewing a Classic: Seven Samurai (七人の侍)

Year: 1954
Directed by: Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura
Written by: Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni

This is a movie so great many of its plot elements have been recycled countless of times. Seven Samurai has spawned a lot of great movies of their own rights: Magnificent Seven and A Bug's Life to mention a couple. There's a slight problem with viewing a classic that has aged as well as Seven Samurai today - it feels formulaic. So many things can be predicted such as the romance between a young samurai and a village girl, many splastick incidents, the climactic battle and the ultimate sacrifice that comes after that.

Fortunately Seven Samurai is so fine a movie that even those slight problems don't deal too much blow on my enjoyment of the movie. Of all the plot borrowed by modern filmmakers, there's one essential element prominent in this film that is frequently missing in their movies: character development, which is actually helped by the film's lengthy running time. All the Seven, especially Mifune's Kikuchiyo and Shimura's Kambei, are fleshed out as breathing human beings with their own personalitites and motivations. As a result, we root and care for them in every skirmish they're in.

Seven Samurai is undisputably one of the best films ever made. The battle scenes are superbly directed and coreographed and we understand what each character's role is and what he is doing or planning to do. The acting is superb. After playing a lowly woodcutter in Rashomon (羅生門), Takashi Shimura skillfully brought some of his innate gravitas into his character: the wise and noble leader of the Seven, Kambei while Mifune had to bring his maniacal self to play the mercurial Kikuchiyo. This Kurosawian epic about an underappreciated valor is one of the earliest examples of artistic and blockbuster filmmaking seamlessly blended together.

Reviewing 'Eclipse' is a self-alienating deed

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Directed by: David Slade
Starring: Kirsten Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Bryce Dallas Howard, Dakota Fanning
Written by: Melissa Rosenberg (adapted from Stephanie Meyer's novel)

I have to alienate virtually all tween girls when writing a review for this movie. But when you're alienating that many people, you are actually alienating yourself, ain't it?

Anyway, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is a corny, poorly-acted exercise of a movie from which entertainment can only be derived from unintentional moments of comedy. Summit Entertainment knew it had a blockbuster in the making, and yet the studio was simply stingy, producing it with a measly $60-ish million production budget. The end result is a flick with bad CGI and bad direction which had succesfully drawn out some aforementioned chuckles from me and my friends. Consider a scene in which the Cullen Clan is chasing the villain through the woods, leaping from trees to trees. It was supposed to be a scene that could provide some cool moments, but in the end, bad CGI and action coreography got me laughing contemplatingly to the farce.

Enough with the technical issues. Aesthetically, the movie can only boast mundane dialogues and wooden expressions. Mundane dialogues... But then again they're just teenagers, so what do you expect? Right. But how about the romance? Even from the first movie I can't still figure out why Bella and Edward are so madly in love with each other; They have a generation gap between them, they don't seem to share the same sense of humor, and they are never engaged in either a lively or an interesting conversation. Everything seems forced and I'm inclined to favor Team Jacob. But ooh, Jacob. Taylor Lautner had spent months in the gym only to appear in unnecessary bare-chested scenes (obviously trying to draw out some 'oohs' and 'aahs' from the targeted tween crowd).

Finally, and inevitably (and also thankfully), comes the final showdown which is the most entertaining bit of the movie. It is an absolute far-cry from other battle scenes derived from fantasy novels, but at least the giant wolves were decently rendered and the whole thing simply didn't disappoint: the way the vampires turned into some kinds of potteries when they're killed was simply amusing to see.

I'm really sorry if I offend any of you girls with this review, but I'm just trying to represent all the guys in the world who had to sit through this. Cheers.

My Rating: 4/10

10 Most Iconic Characters of the 2000s

This is the first list on my blog! I've listed up 10 movie characters that first appeared on the silver screen this decade (starting from year 2000 to 2009). So don't expect to find Darth Vader here because even though he appeared in Episode III (2005), he first appeared in the original Star Wars film (1977). I've picked these characters based on their indelibility on our memories, the performances of the actors and actresses that play them, and their own screen personalities. So here are my 10 most iconic characters of the 2000s.


10. Kirk Lazarus

"I know what dude I am. I'm the dude playin' the dude, disguised as another dude!" - Kirk Lazarus

First appearance: Tropic Thunder (2008)
Played by: Robert Downey Jr.

The aforementioned quote concisely sums up Kirk Lazarus, a five-time Academy Award winning method actor who doesn't break character till he's done with the DVD commentary. In Tropic Thunder he mostly appears as a black soldier striving to speak jive (only to be constantly mocked by the genetically black fellow actor Alpa Chino). He easily surpasses Les Grossman, the foul-mouthed producer played by fat-suit wearing Tom Cruise, as the most memorable character in the brilliant action-comedy spoof with an oblivious seriousness amidst all the surrounding madness. Playing an actor who's disguised as another character, RDJ immerses himself deeply, convincing us that something must have knocked him out of the blue, rendering him someone else.

Recognition: an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor (a rare acting honor for a comedy these days).


9. Juno MacGuff

"Nah... I mean, I'm already pregnant, so what other kind of shenanigans could I get into?" - Juno MacGuff

First appearance: Juno (2007)
Played by: Ellen Page

I've gotta tell you first that Juno is the only female character on this list. It's not that I'm a sexist, it's simply because we all know that for every 10 Indiana Joneses or 10 James Bonds, we only get 1 Ellen Ripley. Juno MacGuff, armed with witty lines supplied by screenwriter Diablo Cody, has blossomed into a new teenage heroine. She's in the process of growing up, but that process is about to get awry when she discovers that she's pregnant. The great thing about her is how we get to care for her immediately after the very first scene in an intelligent and self-assured way.

Recognition: an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for Page and the so-called Juno Effect. And ooh, $231m in worldwide gross against a production budget of $7m.


8. Maximus Decimus Meridius

"At my signal, unleash hell." - Maximus Decimus Meridius

First appearance: Gladiator (2000)
Played by: Russell Crowe

Maximus Meridius is a classic Shakespearean tragic hero on the silver screen whose sole purpose is to avenge the death of his family. Russell Crowe is the perfect actor to play a shattered Roman general with a deep-seated anguish beneath his tough exterior. As a hero in a sword-and-sandal epic, Maximus is a brilliant tactician and a cool-headed hand-to-hand combatant - his Gladiatorial fight scenes are some of the most entertaining action scenes you can find in any epic masterpiece.

Recognition: Russell Crowe's sole Oscar statuette for Best Actor, and his status as an A-lister.


7. Hans Landa

"Now if one were to determine what attribute the German people share with a beast, it would be the cunning and the predatory instinct of a hawk." - Hans Landa

First appearance: Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Played by: Christoph Waltz

Playing as Hans Landa, Christoph Waltz (after Javier Bardem and Heath Ledger) further epitomizes that if you wanna win an Oscar for acting in a supporting role, play a menacing villain. In Waltz's case, that menacing aura can even be maintained while the actor juggles 4 different languages. Blatantly nicknamed "The Jew Hunter", Hans Landa is a cunning, evil, yet charismatic SS Colonel with a bit of a superiority complex (he calls all his subordinates by the name 'Herrmann'). Quentin Tarantino said that without Christoph Waltz, there would have been no Inglourious Basterds. It was thanks to Waltz's subtle performance and Tarantino's trademark script that have rendered Basterds to be such a unique cinematic experience.

Recognition: International limelight and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar statuette for Waltz.


6. Puss in Boots

"Fear me, if you dare." - Puss in Boots

First appearance: Shrek 2 (2004)
Played by: Antonio Banderas (Voice)

Cute by nature, Puss in Boots is much more than that. Despite his diminutive stature, he is an able swordscat who literally dances with his opponents who can never match his sheer speed and prowess while flirting with the audience in every scene in the Shrek series he's in. The audience seems to fall for him, calling him the most endearing character to all Shrek fans.

Recognition: His own spin-off movie in development, and (perhaps) the huge boost in box office intake enjoyed by Shrek 2 over the first Shrek.


5. Jason Bourne

"Look at us. Look at what they make you give." - Jason Bourne

First appearance: The Bourne Identity (2002)
Played by: Matt Damon

In Jason Bourne we now have an American super spy. While JB is more straight-faced than James Bond, he makes up for the lack of a figure like Q (and thus the nonexistence of gadgets and cool cars) with a slick ability to use any available items as weapons and shields during hand-to-hand combats. He also takes his audience to a globe-trotting, identity-searching thrill ride throughout the trilogy and, like a good tour guide, he speaks all the languages of all those countries he visits and is familiar with the localities - he gained all these during his tenure as a CIA Operative. The definite thing that makes us root for him is his desperate quest for redemption.

Recognition: Made Matt Damon an action star. More and more audience seemed to be wanting to see him in action too: each movie in the trilogy always outgrosses its predecessor.


4. Tony Stark

"Yeah, peace. I love peace. I'd be out of a job for peace." - Tony Stark

First appearance: Iron Man (2008)
Played by: Robert Downey Jr.

This is Downey Jr.'s second appearance on this list and it is the role that made his name blip on the Hollywood radar again. Superficially the flashy version of Bruce Wayne, Tony Stark is much more than that. He's essentially what every man dreams of becoming: intelligent (he's a genius, in fact), charming (and eccentric), quiet a looker, wackily humorous, and one of the richest men on the planet with a noble vocation to protect it, in style. Downey Jr. effortlessly improvised on the script to bring a cheerful take on this classic anti-hero.

Recognition: The box office stratosphere and a career revival for the once drug-addled actor.


3. Gollum

"So bright... so beautiful... ah, Precious." - Gollum

First appearance: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Played by: Andy Serkis (mo-cap performance and voice)

Gollum was arguably the most expressive CG character ever created in the history of filmmaking at that time. A heartbreaking figure in the legendary trilogy, Gollum (or Smeagol) spends most of his initial screen time fighting and eventually succumbing to a sinister id whose sole purpose is not to be parted with the Ring. He eventually plays a monumental role by *SPOILER ALERT (but I guess you already know)* inexplicably dropping the One Ring into the fires of Mt. Doom, ridding the Middle Earth from its ultimate badass. Surely, even the smallest (or twisted) person can change the course of the future.

Recognition: Perhaps without him a small film called Avatar wouldn't have existed - Gollum's creation kick-started a new wave of motion-capture technology. Oh and I'm sure he lingers on the minds of those millions who have read and/or seen the novels and movies.


2. Jack Sparrow

"The only rules that really matter are these: what a man can do and what a man can't do." - Jack Sparrow

First appearance: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Played by: Johnny Depp

Perhaps it was one of the greatest achievements in recent Hollywood blockbuster moviemaking to conceive Capt. Jack Sparrow as a permanent drunkard with expressive hand gestures, mangled speech and Keith Richards-like personality. It was Depp's Sparrow that lifted PotC from being a run-of-the-mill epic fantasy by providing regular comic relief, acting bravura, and some brains. Jack Sparrow has a witty, sharp mind that helps him escape from grave danger which befalls on him the whole time. Being a pirate has made him deceitful and disloyal, but we get some glimpses of his humanity in his closeted attraction to Elizabeth Swann.

Recognition: The role got Depp his first ever Academy Awards nom and blockbuster.


1. The Joker

"Well, you look nervous. Is it the scars? You want to know how I got 'em?" - The Joker

First appearance: The Dark Knight (2008)
Played by: Heath Ledger

The greatest character of the 00s is a villain and it shouldn't be very surprising for Heath Ledger's last memorable role to take home the prize. The supervillain's insatiable craving for social devastation has prompted him to mastermind a grand scheme to bring down Gotham City along with its White and Dark Knights with his ingenious 'social experiments'. Profoundly disillusioned by humanity and society, he has turned himself into a remorseless psycho who believes that he's just the extreme version of human nature. Ledger's Joker will always be remembered in the coming decades as one of the most terrifying screen bad guys of all time.

Recognition: Ledger became the second person to win a posthumous Academy Award for acting. The Dark Knight's enormous leap in box office grosses over Batman Begins must have been partly or significantly contributed by the presence of The Joker.


Honorable mentions (those who almost made the cut): Wall-E (Wall-E), Gandalf (LotR trilogy), The Bride (Kill Bill), Anton Chigurh (No Country for Old Men), Marv (Sin City)

Third Toy Story is Pixar's Best

Toy Story 3
Directed by: Lee Unkrich
Voice cast: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Michael Keaton
Written by: John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich

We all know that Pixar has been making some of the best movies of this generation. To me, Toy Story 3 is at the pinnacle of their aesthetic success. It's a perfect blend of comedy, action, and sentimentality. Let me review all these aspects in detail.

An animated feature is always naturally filled with slapsticks and laugh-out-loud moments. Toy Story 3 had a few scenes that got me (and the crowd) laughing my ass off along with plenty other smaller gags throughout the movie. The slapsticks felt fresh and it has many cute characters that would keep you smiling for most of the time.

As for action, Dreamworks has been stuffing us with many action-filled kid-friendly animations like Monsters vs. Aliens and the recent How to Train Your Dragon (which I sadly haven’t seen). Even all Pixar’s movies have elements of suspense. But believe me, the escape scene of the movie passes itself as the most ingenious action scene to ever happen in a cartoon. It’s really smart, genuinely thrilling, and hilarious. As a comparison, I did laugh at the escape scenes from the recent flick The A-team but the laughters were rather condescending because of their deeply-flawed logics. In this flick, I laughed out of pure joy and amazement.

Toy Story 3 has one of the best endings any filmmaker could come up with (think of City Lights). To be honest I did cry out of sorrow at seeing these beloved toys (supposedly) for the last time. Anyone who has been enjoying the first movie 15 years ago would feel the same way I did too. The movie also has a scene towards to end that had me holding back tears as well.

Oh, and while kids are enjoying themselves, grown-ups may appreciate many adult themes such as immortality and unflinching love. In addition to the already perfect movie, Pixar (as usual) includes an entertaining animated short before the real movie starts and a feel-good ending reel alongside the closing credits. I say again, it’s Pixar’s best, it’s definitely the best animated picture I’ve ever seen, and the Toy Story trilogy has definitely become one of the greatest trilogies in movie history. This new decade has its first classic!

P.S.: I hope I haven’t set your expectations too high.

My Rating: 9.5/10

New Karate Kid is Boosted by Leads' Performance

The Karate Kid
Directed by: Harald Zwart
Starring: Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan, Taraji P. Henson
Written by: Christopher Murphey

Will Smith, the box office king of Hollywood, has bred a newborn star. Jaden Smith superbly displays his inherited acting talents by showcasing a wide range of emotions: from frustration and anger to sympathy. As a big fan of Jackie Chan, I'm also pleased to see his best screen performance to date in this movie. It's quiet a refreshing experience to not see him performing his trademark death-defying stunts and does his true job as an actor which is to bring dimension to his characters.

Smith stars as an American kid moving to China while Chan stars as his reluctant kung fu master with a traumatic past. I haven't seen the original Karate Kid and so I'm not in the position of making comparisons. I just think that this movie also works well as a travelogue; many of Beijing's (and China's) most famous landmarks make purposeful cameos.

In terms of plot and story, abandon any hopes of twists and surprises; I bet you already know the entire story even without watching the original movie. We can therefore delight on Dre's process of growing from zero to hero. This is the biggest problem I have with this movie. I've seen so many movies with similar plots that when the audience is supposed to cheer for the final fight, I found myself jaded because I've seen the outcome even before the movie started and because it's hard to find pleasure from kids beating up each other.

Although Karate Kid has its moments of comedy, it's lifted from being a clichéd and redundant reboot by it's main actors.

My Rating: 6.5/10

The A-Team deserves only a B

The A-Team
Directed by: Joe Carnahan
Starring: Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Sharlto Copley
Written by: Joe Carnahan, Brian Bloom, Skip Woods

The Summer has finally spawned a mindlessly fun actioner in The A-Team. It has the right amount of explosions (both on the ground and in the air), right duration, and a charming cast to keep us involved. To ensure utmost enjoyment, please check your brains at the door; we don’t wanna try to figure out how can a US Army Ranger drive a Gallardo around in Mexico, or how another Ranger manages to barrel-roll a chopper because the more we try to be a smart-ass, the more we’ll be unable to follow the frenetic action scenes. Nevertheless, even after leaving my brains outside, I still spotted some incredibly preposterous plots that became a distraction. The story is dumb, but the screenwriters seemed to be trying real hard to come up with clever plots.

The A-Team boasts some ingenious action scenes, most notably the “flying tank” scene. The movie, however, is equally mired by incomprehensible sequences due to choppy editing. The comedy is pretty juvenile but still managed to draw several laughs from the audience. I wasn’t born yet when the TV show was aired and so I think old fans of the show would find this movie more amusing and entertaining.

The main problem of this movie is that the final act could not really top up the movie that had been filled with some spectacles worthy of the ticket price; the climax felt worn-out and redundant. Transformers 2 faced a very similar problem: compare the forest fight scene with the desert battle. Despite this, The A-Team will shift the still-slow summer up a gear with its charm and lightheartedness.

My Rating: 6/10

Hola

So I've decided to create this blog to document all my movie reviews, recommendations, lists, opinions, whatever. I'm a moderately avid moviegoer and my love for movies has driven me up to the point of counting the number of movies I've seen my whole life (576 ATM). I have also posted a few movie reviews on Yahoo! Movies.

I watch whatever good or decent movies I have access to. I don't go blindly to the cinemas - I always check movie reviews on Rotten Tomatoes because I hate to be disappointed after paying the ticket price. I have also begun to watch classic oldies and I've gone as far back as Chaplin's The Gold Rush.

So from now on, I will post reviews and recommendations of movies I find memorable or worth-seeing. I will also post lists like "My Top 10 Favorites" or "5 Most Underrated Movies I've seen", and things like that.