2012 – Roland Emmerich

After my huge disappointment with Terminator Salvation and Babylon A.D., I wasn’t expecting too much when I decided to watch 2012. Especially after I saw the trailer, which to me seemed nothing more than heaving earth, hurtling fireballs and sinking ships. Reminds me too much of all those other terrific-CGI-lousy-story movies. Then again, I had seen 2 end-of-the-world scenarios from Roland Emmerich, so what the heck, I might as well watch this one too.

2012 was a lot better than I expected, because in the midst of all that chaos, a lot of human emotion came through. The director also managed to bring a lot of conflicting sentiments and rationalities to the forefront, though I have to admit, those who don’t agree with the message may find it patronizing.

I only have one complain: Why in the world do scriptwriters think that intimate conversations in the middle of an adrenaline pumping scene is a good idea. No, never a good idea. Because in real life a mother will say “Get the f–k in there, so our (my) kids won’t drown.” Other than that piece of annoying conversation that may have caused 100 people to drown or crack their skulls, and only the movie makers know how many to break their arms and legs, it was a pretty good movie.

Wonder what Emmerich will cook up next: A.I. revolt, nanobots gone rogue? Hope his prediction for 2012 won’t come true, else we won’t get to watch it.

War, Inc. by Joshua Seftel

Portion of Poster

This is by far the goofiest movie I have ever seen; though in a good way. War, Inc. is a satire that uses what happens when war-politics marry capitalism as a backdrop to the undulating conscience of an assassin. There is a lot of big cast in the movie, which was the reason why I was so reluctant to watch it in the first place. Amongst them are Sir Ben Kingsley♥, Hillary Duff, John & Joan Cusack and Marisa Tomei. Even Dan Akryod pops up in the most unusual places. Yet unlike most other big cast movies that I have ever seen, this one felt really honest.

State of Play by Kevin Macdonald

Kevin Macdonald’s State of Play will be out in DVD in a day or two. I remember that this was a really difficult movie for me to watch, maybe because the effect of “The Last King of Scotland” was still so fresh on my mind. I grew up wanting to believe (really badly) that people are generally good and that they are willing to stand up for their fellow man, even though world events and history constantly remind me that this is not always true. Which should come as no surprise because any decent standard distribution chart will come up with a bell-shape graph, proving that both extremes exist.

Bangkok Dangerous (2008) by Oxide Pang Chun and Danny Pang

Movie Poster of Bangkok Dangerous

Bangkok Dangerous (2008) is a lot better than what I initially thought. Dare I say it: This is the first movie I have seen where the Asian cast felt natural in an English/ American language film. There may had been other better ones, but either I may not have seen them or I was not interested enough in the synopsis to want to watch them. For one thing, the gangsters in the movie were not trying to be American gangsters; their cockiness, or quiet reserve was very familiar to me (I grew up in a small town where there used to be a lot of these people). The attention to detail -from the garish makeup to the light kisses- was also in line with what I see and experience in this region.

Ghost Movies and 1408

I watched a rerun of 1408 last night and as the credits rolled at the end of the movie, I was forced to ask myself why the movie didn’t scare me. Have I grown too jaded to appreciate this kind of stuff now? Believe me, I love horror flicks. I love the way chills run up and down my spine and I love the way a good ghost story makes my heart jump. It doesn’t even have to be gory and littered with body parts. I don’t need that to be scared.

I Am Legend directed by Francis Lawrence

After reading the bad review of this movie some years ago, I decided not to go and watch it at the theaters. But I still manage to get hold of a DVD and – surprise, surprise – it wasn’t as bad as I initially thought. Still I could understand why it didn’t do well.

Fearless directed by Ronny Wu

If ever there is anything Ayumikat and I will not agree on, it may be this movie. Jet Li looks gorgeous in Manchurian hair though.

The movie, directed by Ronny Wu, tells the story of the Chinese martial arts master who founded the Jin Wu Sports Federation. The setting is around the time before the Boxer Revolution in China. Although the English title is “Fearless“, the Chinese title is the name of the guru himself; “Huo Yuan Jia”. It was labeled as “Fearless” in English, most probably because of the Lao Tzu quote that the movie uses as a tagline – “Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself makes you fearless.”