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Reviews
Night at the Museum (2006)
Boring, Predictable and not so Funny at all
Night at the Museum was Boring, Predictable and not so funny at all for this cynical old man.
I saw traces of Liar Liar (where a Dad desperately tries to get into his kid's good book), Toy Story (plastic figurine coming alive) and Jumanji (chaotic mess in unanticipated sequences by animated and bizarre creatures) in it.
So if you are a fan of all three movies mention above, go catch it but if you are like me who get bored at very apparent recycled materials that are thinly repackaged by computer generated images and special effects, give it a miss.
Gwai wik (2006)
Alice in Wonderland Meets Silent Hill
The first part of the movie was giving me the creeps ... the creeps that my worst fears about this Pangs'Brother film will come thru ... they just delivered another stinker as they did with Abnormal Beauty.
The background story was badly cut n paste together, giving very little likability to the character (specially the main lead Lee Sinjie). The male actor that was supposed to play Lee Sinjie's love interest lacked the x factor to keep the audience interested too (lucky he didn't had much to do with the film beyond the first act). I just don't buy a moment that he was the inspiration for Tang Yin's previous best seller but then again, he did score well for the repulsive side and if that what's he was suppose to do, then i guess he did his job well.
And the most unbearable part was the ear piercing audio effect that Pang Brother uses in this film to try to create some scares(which was exactly the same trick they used in Abnormal Beauty). Its either their fault or the cinema operator didn't set the volume correctly I was about to write this movie off as another Pang trash until the movie hopped into the rabbit hole and wah la, welcome to "Alice In WonderLand" cum "Silent Hill" Adventure.
Yup, Something click and soon, I was getting in awe mode when Tang Yin enter the nightmare of her life. It's like being washed over by a beautiful horror visual fest. It's not too scary (by my standard) and picturesque enough to remind me of Silent Hill. Morbid visions of bodies dropping from buildings, huge old toys and the viking swaying scaring above a park and ferris wheel, even threatening to fall were just visually arresting.
What this film got was more than Silent Hill was the number of emotions rolled in, specially at the final acts and while it didn't really made sense (or rather the impact was kinda weak) in Silent Hill for the actress to go thru the stages (specially if she not a computer game player), Re-Cycle had a couple of good ones and particular memorable ones.
In this "Wonderland", all things that are abandon in our world comes here to wait for their existence to come to an end. That includes toys, books, ideas, unwanted babies and even tombstones.
It was the tombstones scene that got me liking this film. During Qing Ming, when I accompanied my folks to clean up the graves of our ancestor, I always wondered what about those tombstones that no longer have anyone to visit them annually. It's always sad to see a tombstone that been neglected or don't have anyone to visit them anymore. That kind of sadness was poetically capture in this segment of the film.
Then comes characterization. While it didn't really build much when Tang Ying was still in the real world, the endearing factors about her character start coming in when she encounter spooks after spooks in "wonderland". It got me rooting for her character to survive her ordeal and question the fate in store for her.
Another build up in the lead character will definitely benefited from the friendly young guide that offered to help her out of this mess. This young actress score a better grade in acting and reeling the audience's emotions than the male love interest.
Another actor that I was strangely please and surprise to see would be Lau Siu-ming. One of the old veteran actors in Hong Kong film industry who I last remember seeing him as a sharp old banker in some children drama series had always shine in parts that he appeared in and this time round, he got my attention too, even tho he only got limited parts in this film. His character appearance gave Tang Yin the much needed clue to the predicament that she is in and seeing him just gave me the assurance that we can expect better acting now.
Lastly, the pay out ! the reason why we were treated to this horror adventure and why Tang Yin got trapped in this nightmare. Well I have to say, I didn't see it coming at all. It kinda added up as a surprising and touching finale.
Cars (2006)
Time to Slow Down
Pixar done it again, Seven movies in a row and no flops in sight for me. The name Pixar is now synonymous with good story, great computer animation and overall entertaining entertainment for all ages and definitely worth buying a cinema ticket for.
I didn't have high hopes for this one and was worried that Cars might be the first "not so good one". The first half was quite a drag with the characterization build up that I thought it's my worst fear coming true. But then from the second half, it builds its momentum and race to the magical and touching ending.
Even tho It has all the predictable element for a kid movie but with Pixar, it will still makes you fall in love with the characters n storyline.
and It's not hard to see why John Lasseter was inspired to write this film after taking a break (a road trip with his family) from his hectic work. The way Lightning McQueen was blazing up in the race circuit was pretty much like John Lasseter's raise in the animation world. During the quest to be number one, one could easily forgotten what is really important and the importance of slowing down. Like any Road Trip, it's not the destination that matters but the journey, specially with your love ones.
Caché (2005)
Mystery purposely left Unsolved?
There wasn't really a bored moment for me in Cache (Hidden) as Auteuil and Binoche's performance that kept me interested through out most part of the movie and the urge to find out who the mastermind and what his or her reason for stalking. You can't say that the urge for discovery wasn't fulfilled but thinking back, I can find some merits for this movie (that's beside Auteuil and Binoche's performance).
There will be long moments where the viewers will be treated to looking at the flat of the main characters in one singular angle shot. It might seems like a waste of time but I felt that the director was trying to make the audience feel how is it like to be spying on people or even the victim's feeling when they are watching the tape.
Which will spiral down to the very little explanation of what going on. As again, I thought it was the director's way of immersing the viewers into the main character's feeling of being stalked with weird videotapes/drawings without any explanation. Can you imagine the state of confusion that the main characters are going through?
In a way, it's like a question that you can't solved and not given the answer to it. It will remains deeply in your mind. Perhaps that what the stalker and the director's intention?
I gathered from IMDb that it's the director's trademark to leave open ended endings, it might be his intention to leave the viewers thinking about this movie and remembering the question that remained unsolved.
Tung mung kei yuen (2005)
Wait till you are older: Andy Lau's new movie
~Nutshell plot~ Boy (Kong) hate that his dad for causing mom's death and moving him into a new home with a step-mom. Kong vowed to leave home asap and cant wait to grow up. Like movies such as "Big" and "13 going on 30", little boy gets his wish and become a grown man over night.
Had very low expectation for this and during the early part of this movie, I was counting the number of films that it's ripping off. "Matrix" and "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate events" was 2 prominent ones that I caught.
But as the story goes on, everything seems to gel together. Especially the ending, which wasn't the formulaic routine finale that I had predicted and it made the whole "sudden", growing up more meaningful.
Another factor that kept my interest going was why was a genuinely nice Step-Mom (Karen Mok) who had tried to put up with Kong's constant tantrum, ended up as a home wrecker (that Kong constantly accused her of). The revelation came suddenly and rather surprising for me. The resolution of it was done well enough and emotional enough to bring tears to some (I witness it!).
The subplots such as Kong (Andy)'s crush on his teacher Miss Lee and his good friend Da Xiong's family (who shared dinner over the internet because the mom is staying in rural area) didn't really have a proper closure. That was scene where the older Kong asked if Da Xiong's dad ever cheated and was given a nudge by his good friend. It seems like there was something more to it but nothing came out from it.
And Miss Lee falling for the older version of Kong was rather unbelievable. There wasn't enough time to build any creditable romance between them and Miss Lee's character comes across to me like a potential psychopath. This is one very weird relationship.
Anyway veterans like Karen Mok, Felix Wong and Andy Lau made it fun to watch this movie and compared to the recent HK movie, "The Myth", "Wait till you're older" will be more worth it to catch it in Cinema.