Beowulf - Temptation is the curse (80%~B+)

Not sure how to rate this movie. It’s done a very good job in surprising me with new techniques in cinematography, but I just cant help but think I am watching Shrek. Anyhow, this movie must be watched in the theaters or it’ll lose its novelty. I have just given the outline in order not to spoil the surprise and special effects… (Note that I have changed my rating method to be based on percentage for easier reference.)

Storyboard (25 of 25):
Very good plot. Based on an ancient Anglo-Saxon (AD700) heroic epic poem by an anonymous author, this story goes about weaving stories of demons and monsters, both real and nightmares that haunts the consciences of Kings of the olden days. A very violent yet enlightening movie that touches the hearts of people who greeds fame, power and wealth. It’s a reminder to those who are currently on their journey seeking for these elements, as these are the people who will easily and unwittingly fall into the traps of evil dark demonic forces – traps which are set by their very own seeds, seeds which were sowed by their very own hands.

Story is set in a small kingdom in Denmark, just a few hundred years After Christ, when modern civilization just started to bloom and folklore and witchcraft was still largely practiced and believed. The royal family (King Hrothgar and Queen Wealthow) and their people are plague by occasional violent monster attacks by a troll called Grendel who launches attacks every time the human celebrates. Beowulf, a great Geat (Scandinavian) warrior, decided to take up King Hrothgar's challenge to defeat Grendel in the name of glory. In those days, peoples’ lives become meaningful if their deaths are talked about in stories and poems for generations and across nations. As such, everyone fights hard to die gloriously in battle. And the person who can stay alive after many victorious battles with both mortals and demons will be honored as King. In his quest to eliminate Grendel, Beowulf finds himself entangled in a demonic curse; cast by Grendel’s evil but seductive mother, which have sentenced many Kings and their Kingdoms into great misery.

Cinematography (15 of 25):
This movie uses a new filming technique, called motion capture. As such, the computer generated imagery (CGI) was good, but too much for me. Director Robert Zemeckis couldn’t have made this movie with all its stunts without CGI but too much of it just leave a bland aftertaste. My logical mind kept telling me that it isn’t real. I mean, I can watch a real person do weird stunts with CGI and still believe they are doable as I am seeing the real person doing it with my own eyes . However, seeing an animated character doing it, no matter how real, just doesn’t cut it to make it believable! Although the animation was really, really good, I don’t think this movie can win awards in the normal category. Maybe the best animated movie category.

Issues (20 of 25):
This ancient tale addresses most of the crossroads we encounter in life.
1) Love
2) Courage
3) Loyalty
4) Betrayal
5) Religion
6) Honesty
7) Greed
8) Disillusion

Casting (20 of 25):
Good casting as it uses the right people for the right characters. Angelina Jolie fits perfectly as the temptress witch mother with her irresistible beauty and seductive voice. Anthony Hopkins plays the mighty but drunk King Hrothgar very well. Robin Wright Penn character displayed the inner sorrows very well through her eyes. Ray Winstone was casted for the Beowulf character because of his outstanding performance in television as King Henry VIII.

Overall Score: 80 B+

A 81-100 Highly recommended, must go to Theaters
B 61-80 Recommended Watch
C 41-60 Give it a try
D 21-40 Wait for the DVD
E 0-20 You can give this a miss

Note: all pictures are sourced from http://www.imdb.com

Babel: If you want to be understood... Listen

An interesting movie where 4 stories are cleverly interweaved into one big movie. You will have to watch this movie to see how a rich troubled American couple who are having a holiday in Morocco can be linked to a shepherd and his 2 sons, and also connected to a Mexican lady who is working as a live-in maid in America for 16 years but had to attend her son's wedding in Mexico for just 1 day. And somehow these 2 persons' stories are linked all the way to Japan, to a troubled Japanese deaf-mute teenager who cannot cope with the lost of her mother and her adolescence problems.

The writer Guillermo Arriaga and director Alejandro González Iñárritu have cleverly included all the ingredients to make a great movie:

a) Famous actors: Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett

b) Location, location, location: There are people and stories from countries spanding across 4 continents, Asia, Africa, and North and South America

c) Storyline that deals with various world issues such as:

1. Terrorism (there's a scene I like where Brad Pitt gave money to a Moroccan for helping and the Moroccan refused. Brad Pitt was truly touched by this Moroccan stranger who helped him unconditionally while his American compatriates have left him and his wife to fend for themselves. In this terrorist and war-torn world which have inevitably changed our perception on strangers causing stereotyping and suspicion, this movie tends to help put things back to perspective.)


2. Family issues (Brad Pitt and wife were having a difficult time in their marriage after the death of their young child but things are put into perspective when the wife is facing a near death situation.)


3. Maid issues (Rich couples put their child care entirely into the hands of maids which can be dangerous sometimes irregardless of how much the maid loves the kids)


4. Guns (Nowadays, guns are easily available and thus, irresponsible or uneducated usage of these powerful weapons can lead to deadly consequences)


5. Single parent/Lost of parent problems (Single parents must try to listen to their children and vice versa as both are trying hard to cope with their individual problems)


6. Adolescence problems (this show highlights the many teenage problems such as drugs, alcohol, sex, rejection, generation gaps, self-consciousness etc).


7. Handicap (this movie touches on how a deaf-mute cope with everday life)

d) A naked japanese girl. (need I say more? haha)

Actually, I like these kind of movies which tend to create awareness on various issues in life. It gives us a different perspective on how connected we all are as we watch all these somewhat random people in the world but yet somehow all connected to each other.

I'd rate this movie an A-, given the good cinematography and the whole story telling and connection is so seamlessly done.

Picture Source: http://www.imdb.com

28 Weeks Later And Resident Evil 3: Extinction

Never had been a fan of zombie movies. (I think I mentioned that when I wrote about Resident Evil 2: The Apocalypse) . However, here are 2 zombie movies which I managed to sit through the entire show without cursing or falling asleep.

Resident Evil 3: Extinction

Well, this year there's just so many sequels to a sequel that you have to get used to it. I have to say that this episode (it has turned into a series I suppose...) is better than its predecessor. The fighting scenes are superbed and of course the body counts are aplenty and they didn't censor the dreadful bloody scenes in the theaters so please don't bring children.

The CGI used are really good to support the storyline which is adapted from a computer game (Capcom's Resident Evil). Basically, the story talks about a group of evil scientists and opportunist who tries to genetically alter the genes of a human being to create a superior species and eliminate the others weaker ones. Don't try to decipher deeply into the movie as the bottomline of any zombie movie is that this is a dog-eat-dog or human-eat-human world and we've gotta stay tough and kill the rest to survive.

Usually in zombie movies, we don't even want to talk about casting.... but this one has Milla Jovovich as Alice the main character. Also, this chapter offers a bonus: Ali Carter (of Heroes fame) as a strong supporting actress. After watching this show, you cant help but feel some "Girl Power".

Overall, I'd give this show a B, mostly for the body counts (and stunts) and good cinematography on the fighting scenes. Milla Jovovich is of course a plus point.

28 Weeks Later

Another Girl power movie whereby the lead is an actress, Catherine McCormack, and the child actress Amanda Walker, are very much the heroins of the movie.

Movie is about a virus epidemic which spread all over UK and caused everyone to turn into zombies.

As any zombie movie goes, it doesn't really make much sense but it makes good entertainment. Lots of body counts and gory, bloody scenes - just the kind of movie a zombie-movie lover would love to watch.

Would give it a C, as it's already a B movie to start with.

Note: Pictures Source: http://www.imdb.com

Death Proof

Finally watched Death Proof by Quentin Tarantino.

Quentin is definitely an extraordinary director/filmmaker. He can see things through his camera which is different from others and he tries to make us see those special angles which we seldom see on the big screen. As this is his tribute to the 70s B-grade Grindhouse movie, he started the show with lots of psychedelics and corresponding 70s large fonts and 70s “High Chaperal” type of music. I like those scratches that he made purposely to make it look like a film, or something you get to watch at a ‘Drive-In’ theater. I also like the way he shows us the vast difference if he showed us the film in black & white and then in color.

There are some “out of your imagination” action, so please ask your children to steer clear of this movie. You can be sure Quetins show has lots of blood and body count. Well, this one won’t fail you.

There are no real moral in this movie but the storyline is ok for a B grade movie. Kurt Russell definitely made this movie a little more interesting with his witty pick up lines…

Pity the version I watched doesn’t comes with Planet Terror, else I could kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

I would rate it B+ for overall content, directorship, castings etc……

Oh, and btw, the name of the show is such because the car driven by Kurt Russell (Stuntman Mike) is death proof... i.e. the car was used for stunts and thus is built to keep whoever in the car safe (from death).... And guess what, the car is a dear old Chevrolet.. :) a 1970 Chevy Nova... :) Chevrolets are featured in many movies lately, Transformers, Wild Hogs, and now Death Proof.. :)

Grindhouse 2007

Saw an interesting preview on Astro during the weekend... calledGrindhouse.

This movie is a 2 in 1,with 2 horror flicks; "Death Proof" which is written by Quentin Tarantino, and "Planet Terror",which is written byRobert Rodriguez, merged together cleverly with fake movie trailers.

Death Proof is about a psychopath/serial killer (Kurt Russell) who goes around stalking and killing beautiful women with his "death proof" car. On the other hand, Planet Terror is about a sheriff couple who has to deal with a zombie infested town.

Expect lots of saucy scenes and brutal attacks as this is Quentin's tribute to the 70s Grindhouse Cinemas aka B-Grade Movie Theaters aka Drive in theaters or Exploitation films as they call it in US.

Black Sheep - Violence of the Lambs

Now this is a bizarre comedy thriller that have washed up our shores from New Zealand. The casts are unknown to me, and even the director/writer Jonathan King doesnt seem familiar to me. Usually, I wont even go near such zombie-animal type of movies even with a 3 feet pole but since there's a demand for a review of this gory, stomach turning, B-grade movie, I relented and decided to give this movie a try.

Storyboarding is not bad, really. Storyboard is full and complete and tries to justify every scenes it projected.

The story is about 2 sheperd brothers, the Oldfields, who grew up in their father's New Zealand sheep farm. The older brother Angus, who has deep seeded insecurity due to his handicap, is the bully and killed younger brother Henry's pet sheep causing Henry to develop a phobia of sheeps.

15 years later, Angus, who stayed on to take over their father's farm offers USD2 Million to buy over Henry's share of the farm. Henry returned to the farm to accept the offer from Angus, who is now an established sheep farmer and researcher. As Henry was about to leave, 2 environmentalist, Grant and Experience, accidentally released a mutant sheep foetus while investigating Angus' genetic experiment on sheeps.

Weird experience with deadly meat-eating sheeps and face-to-face battles with violent man-killing sheeps follows. Get ready to be surprised by deadly Were-Sheeps transformation and gory "shot-guns-bursting-sheep-heads" scenes and expect lots of wild, murderous sheeps on a killing rampage.

I think you would like this one if you are a fan of those "zombie" movies or if you tend to "flock" to those "genetically modified mutants that goes on a killing frenzy" kind of movies. For me, I think there are better movies to watch than this "shear terror". BaaHahaha.

Preview : Shoot Em Up

Watched the preview on Astro Behind the scenes and thought it's worth mentioning and worth waiting for. What caught my eye was the abundance of action and gun shots and also the love story in the background.... kinda make it a movie for the boys (who goes for the action) and girls (love story maniacs, obviously) and family (baby and all)..... Also boasts some high class casts which the director and writer Michael Davis handpicked namely, Clive Owen (of Derailed, Pink Panther, Sin City and King Arthur fame), Paul Giamatti (2005 Oscar winner for best supporting actor in Cinderella Man) and Monica Bellucci (Oscar nominated for Matrix Reloaded, and The Passion Of the Christ) .

Will be waiting eagerly for its release in Malaysia... meanwhile, here's the plot sypnosis (source: imdb.com):

Mr. Smith (Clive Owen) is waiting for a bus when a pregnant woman runs by, chased by a group of thugs. Smith kills them and delivers the baby, but the mother is killed. Chased by the evil Mr. Hertz (Paul Giamatti) and an army of goons, Smith enlists DQ (Monica Bellucci), a lactating prostitute, to help him care for the baby.After a series of gun fights, Smith discovers the truth. A Democratic presidential candidate and supporter of draconian gun control measures is dying, but had several supporters impregnanted from his sperm so he could harvest the children. The women were killed by Mr. Hertz who was working for a wealthy firearms executive. However, Mr. Hertz and the Democratic politican cut a deal to work together. Smith kills every one of them personally, and in the end he reunites with DQ and the baby to start a new family.