Category: Movies

It’s a good thing that I was on leave last week because I was able to watch Fast & Furious 6 on its first day.  I caught it when most of the folks were at work.  When evening came, the only words that came out of my mouth were, “Do watch Fast & Furious 6!”, “You should watch Fast & Furious 6”, “Fast & Furious 6 is the best among all Fast & Furious movies!”, “Do not miss Fast & Furious 6 or else you’ll regret it” and “Fast & Furious 6 is soooo good, you should make time to catch it”.

I was really like a broken record convincing every single friend to catch the movie.  Suffice to say, I enjoyed the movie tremendously.  In fact, my jaw dropped almost the entire time I was watching it.  It was that good.

Fast & Furious 6 follows after a successful $100 million robbery from Fast Five.  The group are now enjoying a comfortable life as multi-millionares and have retired from their old life.  However, U.S. government agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson) approaches them to seek help on tracking down a group of criminals led by Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) and Dominic’s assumed dead girlfriend Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez).  Since Dominic’s gang are family, the Fast Five team regrouped.

There are a lot of things I loved about Fast & Furious 6:

• My favourite stars in the Fast & the Furious franchise are all in the film – Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Ludacris, Tyrese, Gal Gadot, Sung Kang, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster & Elsa Pataky.  The new stars (Luke Evans & Gina Carano) were awesome too!
• Fast & Furious 6 was action-packed.  Trust me, from the first scene to the last scene of the movie!  It was just so full of stunts, fast cars and unbelievable action scenes!  Other movies will have only one of those stunts as highlight in their movie.  However, Fast & Furious 6 are jampacked with all those awesome sequences!
• It’s a combination of car racing (Fast & Furious real theme), WWE (yes, wresting!) and non-stop action!  Fast & Furious definitely grown from being a car racing movie to a full-blown action film with characters not only good at driving but also learned to fight and use guns.
• The movie connects the story of all other Fast & Furious films.  We finally are able to connect and understand the storyline.  I had to watch Tokyo Drift again to understand Sung Kang’s character more.
• The humor wasn’t forced at all.  When the characters delivered those lines, it was genuinely funny!  Something that normal people would utter as well.
• The action isn’t limited to the male leads but also equally to the female characters.  It shouldn’t be a surprise considering Fast & Furious had former MMA champion Gina Carano onboard.  They all kicked ass!
• I love how Fast & Furious 6 built each character’s story.  Everyone had their moments and we empathised with each of them especially Sung Kang… I miss him :'(
• The spoiler article that I read last February 2013 is actually REAL!  It’s now confirmed who the villain is for Fast & the Furious 7 and I loved it!  Actually, I wanted to watch Fast & Furious 7 right the minute that Fast & Furious 6 ended.  If movie theaters sell those tickets right now, I would buy it in a heartbeat!

My rating for Fast & Furious 6:  5 out of 5 stars.

I came to meet a friend thinking that we would be watching Star Trek: Into Darkness.  However, I was surprised when I saw that it was apparently Evil Dead.  I’m a lover of horror movies.  In fact, I used to watch a horror flick every single week.  No matter if there are only ten people inside the cinema, it doesn’t matter as long as I was able to satisfy my craving for scary movies!

I must admit that I do not watch movies that much anymore.  The high prices of cinemas made me want to just stay home and watch DVD.  Also, my friends are all busy with their own families & dates that I ended up not having a movie buddy anymore.

Anyway, while I didn’t expect to watch a horror movie after a long time, I embraced it.  I love scary movies after all!

Evil Dead is about five young friends who went out of town to help one of them cope with drug abuse.  When they got into a remote family cabin, they found out that some people had broken in and left quite a yucky mess in the place.  The youngsters discovered the Book of the Dead.  As expected, one of them examined the book and unleashed a demon living nearby the woods and hell broke loose.

The story of Evil Dead is simple but watching the story unfold in the cinema was terrifying!  In fact, I do not think I would want to watch a horror movie again.  I watched Evil Dead last weekend but until now, I sleep with lights and TV on.  I hallucinate that there would be ghosts or evil forces when I’m driving at night.  Yeah, Evil Dead affected me badly that I didn’t appreciate it anymore.

Net, the film was uber effective!  It was gross, brutal, terrifying and violent!  To creep you out further, the first letter of the movie’s main characters’ names (David, Eric, Mia, Olivia & Natalie) form the word, D-E-V-I-L.  Yea, scary, creepy, uuugghhh.

My rating for Evil Dead: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Iron Man 3 is definitely the most anticipated movie last weekend.  When I went to the mall to check out the cinemas, there weren’t even other movies being shown apart from Iron Man 3.  Guess what?  We even had to queue for half an hour just to be able to purchase tickets.  When we finally got to the ticket counter, the next 2 showing times were already fully booked.  We had to wait for 7 hours before we can watch the movie.  Were all those hassle worth it?  Hell yeah!

I must say that Iron Man 3 is the best Iron Man movie yet!  It blew my mind and definitely exceeded my expectations.  While I loved the storyline, the action scenes and the comedy, it was Robert Downey, Jr. who made me love and enjoy Iron Man 3 thoroughly!

Downey must have been the most charismatic actor in Hollywood.  In spite of us seeing Iron Man on the big screen four times, we never get tired of the character.  He portrayed Tony Stark brilliantly.  In this movie, Stark had a lot to go through, to the point that he was traumatised.  But you know what?  In spite of that, Robert Downey Jr. was effective in showing those emotions and still keeping the same comedic quality.

Robert Downey Jr. is the star of Iron Man 3 and I must say that he was the biggest reason why the movie is successful.  However, other stars were so great as well and were perfect supporting cast.  Celebrities like Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Don Cheadle, Jon Favreau, and even Gwyneth Paltrow were awesome!  Gwyneth was given a bigger role this time with Pepper Potts joining the action.  She was gorgeous, sexy and definitely kicked some ass out there!

I also liked how Iron Man 3 focuses on Tony Stark versus Iron Man.  We get to see Downey’s handsome face a lot in the film.  The way they changed how Stark wears his costume is something that you should be looking forward to!

Iron man learns a valuable lesson in Iron Man 3 and you have to watch out for that.  With Tony Stark’s world destroyed by the enemy, he had to depend on his own instincts and devices in order to survive and save his loved ones.  Through that journey, Tony Stark is starting to realise what is most important to him.  The ending would really put a smile to your face 🙂

Oh, and you have to wait for the after credits…. you’ll enjoy the small surprise from the playboy/billionaire/genius/philanthropist Tony Stark and a special guest 😉

My rating for Iron Man 3: 4.5 out of 5 stars

A movie starring Bruce Willis, Channing Tatum and Dwayne Johnson?  I definitely wouldn’t miss!  In addition, I have a huge crush on the Korean guy in the film and that made me wanna watch it more!

G.I. Joe: Retaliation is actually a sequel to the 2009 film: G.I. Joe – The Rise of Cobra.  Five of the stars [Channing Tatum (Duke), Arnold Vosloo (Zartan), Ray Park (Snake Eyes), Jonathan Pryce (U.S. President), and Lee Byung-hun (Storm Shadow)] including my Korean crush reprised their roles.  I would have wished for Joseph Gordon-Levitt to play Cobra Commander still but I guess the producers want a fresh take on G.I. Joe considering the bad reviews they got during the first instalment.

In this movie, the G.I. Joes are not only fighting with the Cobras but they are forced to hide their existence while trying to save the world.  Why and how?  You have to watch the movie 🙂

My friend Kristel and I watched the movie in 3D.  I liked it though it didn’t have that much effects in 3D but I what I appreciated was the surround sound.  It made the whole viewing experience a better one.

Some observations I had while watching G.I. Joe: Retaliation are the ff.:

• It felt like the producers wanna make us remember that G.I. Joes were made by Hasbro.  They pushed this information on us considering they flashed it not once, not twice but thrice!  I just wanna say I get it!  I really get it!  The G.I. Joes were made by Hasbro!  They were originally toys which we played when we were kids.
• Spoiler alert: Channing Tatum won’t last a quarter of the movie.  I wished to see him more but that’s how the story went.  He had to die.  It was just too bad because his chemistry with Dwayne Johnson was superb (you’ll notice it through their bromance scenes at the start of the movie).
• Lady Jaye was sexy!  You have to watch her show her beautiful body in the film.  The actress is Adrianne Palicki.  If you watch the TV series – Friday Night Lights, you would remember her.
• Storm Shadow (played by my crush – Lee Byung-hun) was such an eye candy.  Honestly, when he was in the scenes, all I did was stare at him.  The actor is already 42 years old but boy, he’s HOT!
• I wish to have lots of firearms like what Bruce Willis’ character has in the movie.  Hard core to the finest!  I know it isn’t possible but it doesn’t hurt to dream 😛
• I was expecting for Bruce Willis’ character to be badass like his Die Hard character.  However, I was disappointed.  While his role was a former general, all the good fight scenes went to the ninjas.
• Snake eyes will never ever let his face show.  I was hoping that he would at least reveal his face in the ending but that didn’t happen 🙁
• The best scene ever and I’m pretty sure everyone who saw G.I. Joe: Retaliation would agree with me is the Flying Ninja fight at the mountains.  I was watching with awe… sooooooo awesome!!

Overall, an entertaining movie to watch and it’s mainly because of the big stars like Dwayne Johnson, Channing Tatum & Bruce Willis.  G.I. Joe: Retaliation is a light movie to watch perfect if you wanna relax after a long day of work.

My Rating for G.I. Joe: Retaliation: 4 out of 5 stars

It seems that fantasy movies are popular these days. The second one I watched this month was Oz the Great and Powerful.  I had high expectations on this one as I heard lots of raves about the movie. Plus, who wouldn’t want to see James Franco and Mila Kunis?

According to director Sam Raimi, the film takes place twenty years before the events of Victor Fleming’s original 1939 movie.  The film is not based on any book in the Oz series, but can be seen as a prequel of the classic myth.

Oz the Great and Powerful tells the story of Oscar Diggs commonly known as Oz (James Franco), a circus magician, con artist and womaniser.  Originated from Kansas, Oscar got into the land of Oz when he was hurled away by a tornado.  Oscar thinks he got lucky upon seeing the fortune he could get at the land of Oz.  However, Oscar was unwillingly drawn into the problems facing the land.  He met three witches and transforming into a better man in the process.

Here are the main characters including some of my favourite supporting ones
(source: Walt Disney FB Page):

• Oscar Diggs (James Franco) – a small-time magician who takes his magic act on the road as part of a traveling circus in the Midwest. A man with dubious ethics, Oz is a handsome, charming charlatan who is skilled at smooth-talking his way out of problems. When he is hurled into the magical Land of Oz, Oscar faces a fight-or-flight dilemma that holds the fate of a kingdom in the balance, forcing him to decide what kind of man he truly is before it is too late.
• Theodora (Mila Kunis) – a beautiful, naïve witch who is protected by her powerful sister Evanora. Theodora only wants peace to come to the Land of Oz and truly believes that a prophesied wizard will arrive someday to restore order.
• Evanora (Rachel Weisz) – A witch to be feared, Evanora is Theodora’s over-protective sister. With her penetrating gaze, she exudes a powerful presence and has positioned herself as the royal advisor and protector of Emerald City.
• Glinda (Michelle Williams) – a good witch who rules over a peaceful kingdom of simple, kind folk. Beautiful Glinda is not only a compassionate and benevolent witch, but also a fierce protector of her people. Though Glinda sees through Oz’s façade early on, she knows genuine goodness lies within and helps Oz achieve his true destiny.
• Finley (Voice of Zach Braff) – a winged monkey that accompanies Oz on his journey. Finley doesn’t have a high opinion of Oscar and lets him know it. Ultimately he becomes a loyal ally and helps Oz discover his true self.
• China Girl (Voice of Joey King) – from the village of China Town, where everything, including the inhabitants, is made of china. When destruction befalls her land, the brave, resilient China Girl encounters Oz and they strike up an unlikely friendship.
• Knuck (Tony Cox) – a dour, unsmiling Munchkin, who, as the Herald of Emerald City, announces all the visitors. Despite his cantankerous demeanor, he is loyal to Glinda and thus reluctantly becomes Oz’s ally.

Each and every character in the movie was interesting… I especially loved the China girl and the flying monkey.  They were so cute and adorable!

Unfortunately, I felt that Mila Kunis’ character was forgettable 🙁  I’m not sure if it was the script or she wasn’t able to portray the evil witch effectively.

I must admit I couldn’t stop staring over how astoundingly beautiful Michelle Williams was in the movie.  She had an angelic look all throughout the movie.  I do not know if it was the make up or the costumes but boy, Oz the Great and Powerful just made me a Michelle Williams fan.  She’s now one of my girl crushes!

Another aspect of Oz the Great and Powerful that I loved was the impressive graphics.  I enjoyed touring the vibrant land of Oz through the film.  The beautiful land, flowers, hot air balloon, and special effects like Glinda’s flying bubbles.  It was eye-candy all around.

The movie was over two hours. I had a great time watching it with its beautiful scenery.  I think a lot of people can escape watching this movie.  Oz the Great and Powerful definitely caters to everyone of any age.

My Rating for Oz the Great and Powerful: 4 out of 5 stars