Escape Plan

Genre: Action

Director: Mikael Hafstrom

Writers: Miles Chapman and Arnell Jesko

Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Caviezel, Faran Tahir, Sam Neill, Amy Ryan

Running Length: 116 minutes

Synopsis: One of the world’s foremost authorities on structural security agrees to take on one last job: breaking out of an ultra-secret, high-tech facility called “The Tomb.” Deceived and wrongly imprisoned, Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) must recruit fellow inmate Emil Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to help devise a daring, nearly impossible plan to escape from the most protected and fortified prison ever built.

Review: This is the first real lead pairing of 80s action stalwarts Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and while it’s not entirely a case of too little too late, Escape Plan will likely appeal more to moviegoers who are familiar with the duo’s bodies of work (pun unintended) in the 80s and early 90s. Despite featuring two lead actors that are over 65 years old and a ridiculous, hole-ridden storyline, Escape Plan still manages to entertain, although some serious editing should have been made to the almost 2-hour running time.

There’s almost no real plot and character development in Escape Plan, so essentially all one needs to know is that both Stallone and Schwarzenegger’s characters have been wrongly imprisoned and need to stage a prison break. The only twist in this tale is that Breslin is an expert in breaking out of prisons, and even this “escape-proof” prison will fall to his machinations. Yet, it takes almost a full half hour to lay the groundwork for Breslin, before the audience is introduced to Rottmayer, and the film rambles aimlessly along for almost another half hour before things truly kick into gear. For throwaway entertainment like this, that’s one hour too long to wait. 

Escape Plan does not have a strong storyline at all, and its contrivances can almost be too ridiculous to overlook. However, the lead actors are very likeable, and display enough chemistry to make this pseudo buddy movie work. The only thing that gets in the way is that both Stallone and Schwarzenegger are obviously geriatric (I say this with a lot of love and respect for both actors), and it seems that director Mikael Hafstrom is actively trying to let the audience think that they are still in their 40s. It doesn’t work, and frankly, tests the audience’s ability to suspend disbelief to near-breaking point. Implausibility aside, this is definitely a movie that will be found in the “Guilty Pleasures” category, and is entertaining enough (just barely) to make it worth the price of admission.

Rating: * * ½ (out of four stars)

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Gravity

Genre: Sci-Fi, Drama

Director: Alfonso Cuaron

Writers: Alfonso Cuaron and Jonas Cuaron

Cast: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney

Running Length: 91 minutes

Synopsis: Dr. Ryan Stone (Bullock) is a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (Clooney) in command. But on a seemingly routine mission, disaster strikes. The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalski completely alone—tethered to nothing but each other and spiralling out into the blackness. The deafening silence tells them they have lost any link to Earth…and any chance for rescue. As fear turns to panic, every gulp of air eats away at what little oxygen is left. But the only way home may be to go further out into the terrifying expanse of space.

Review: Gravity is a master-class in how 3D can be used to a film’s advantage and to deepen the audience’s immersion. Despite running a mere 91 minutes, this is an intense and visually stunning movie that works best in IMAX 3D (completely worth the price of admission), with a stellar performance from Sandra Bullock that guarantees an Oscar nomination, if not a win. Although it’s not entirely without flaws, Gravity is easily one of the best movies released this year so far, and should be seen on the big screen as home video is unlikely to be able to successfully replicate the transcendent viewing experience.

The film opens with a single 20-minute take, and almost all of the exposition and scene-setting occurs in this sequence. It is a great technical achievement, and the scene is one that sets the tone of the whole movie. A caveat to those prone to motion sickness:  the latter minutes of this sequence could be taxing on your sensibilities, since it’s set in the first-person POV of Ryan Stone.

What ensues after the stage is set is an extremely intense hour of cinema – although the structure is very straightforward, the fact that Ryan Stone is essentially on her own (George Clooney’s character functions more like a cameo appearance despite him getting equal top billing to Sandra Bullock) in the vast confines of space means the challenge of performing even the simplest acts seems near insurmountable. Combined with what seems like an unrelenting wave of bad luck, it’s almost physically exhausting, in a good way, to witness Stone’s struggles to survive.

This is definitely Sandra Bullock’s strongest performance in her career, far outshining her somewhat overrated (Oscar-winning) performance in The Blind Side. Bullock has to carry nearly the entire movie on her own, and has no other characters to play off of for the majority of the movie (even Tom Hanks at least had Mr Wilson in Cast Away). It does veer a little towards schmaltz in the final minutes of the film, but she is definitely the one to beat in 2014’s Oscar race.

Because of the setting in space, viewing Gravity in 3D in the largest format possible will definitely aid in the sense of immersion one gets from the film. Alfonso Cuaron has succeeded in harnessing technology to deepen the viewing experience – it’s rare that one reacts instinctively to “duck” from a flying piece of debris without feeling a sense of cheesiness, but that’s exactly what I did on multiple occasions in Gravity. The 3D amplifies the vastness of space, yet paradoxically it also makes the viewer feel even more intimately linked to and focused on Bullock’s performance. It’s hard to tell how much of the experience will be lost on smaller screens at home, but to not at least view this once in a darkened theatre would be missing out on one of the movie events of the year.    

 * * * ½ (out of four stars)

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Zone Pro Site: A Movable Feast

Genre: Comedy

Director: Chen Yu Hsun

Writer: Chen Yu Hsun

Cast: Lin Mei Hsiu, Tony Yang, Kimi Hsia, Wu Nien Chen, Ko Yi Cheng, His Hsiang, To Hsien, Bamboo Chen, Chan Wan Hao

Running Length: 144 minutes

Synopsis: More than twenty years ago, there were three Ban-doh (outdoor banquet) master chefs who dominated the catering business in Taiwan. They were known as Master Silly Mortal, Master Ghost Head and Master Fly Spirit. However, the outdoor banquet business has been in decline since Taiwan’s economic take-off, and even the master chefs feel helpless to turn the tide. Master Fly Spirit wants to pass the family recipes and culinary skills on to his only child, Hsiao Wan, but she desperately wants to run away from the family business and to become a fashion model. Nevertheless, fate proves that Wan is destined to take up the challenge and mission she once shunned…

Review: Curious, meaningless English title aside, Zone Pro Site is an entertaining romp through the world of “ban dou”, the Taiwanese catering business, through the eyes of a younger generation. Continuing a trend of Taiwanese movies seeing success when dealing with specific aspects of Taiwanese culture, Zone Pro Site tells an engaging story that doesn’t bore, despite a running time clocking well over 2 hours.

Although director Chen Yu Hsun has been away from the big screen for sixteen years, he seems to have stayed remarkably up-to-date, amply evidenced by his choice to use an almost manga style to his direction of Zone Pro Site. There are many scenes which invoke the use of magical realism, and the larger-than-life characters also allude to the manga influence, not least of which are a trio of “otakus” who are ready to offer their assistance to the central protagonist Hsiao Wan at all times. The finale cooking competition is also one of the weirdest I have seen for a live-action movie, incorporating effects and sequences that seem to have been plucked directly out of similarly themed Japanese cartoons. This stylistic choice makes for a lively viewing experience, and helps to minimize dead air in the movie (but requires a high tolerance level to whimsy). 

It also helps that most of the main and supporting cast members put in good performances, none more so than Lim Mei Hsiu as the boisterous mother of Hsiao Wan. She displays both a great comic timing and good thespian prowess, easily outshining any other cast member sharing the screen with her. Kimi Hsia does the best she could with what is essentially quite a one-note lead character, but fortunately she is ably bolstered by a good supporting cast. The weakest link is clearly Tony Yang, who seems to function as a pretty face but is undeniably bland in his portrayal of the “gourmet doctor” and requisite love interest.

With a relatively large cast and multiple plot threads, it was perhaps inevitable that certain elements would have fallen by the wayside. One unfortunate and surprising casualty of this is the actual food itself – for a movie that revolves around feasts and chefs, I had expected there to be much greater focus on the dishes being created. However, the director seems to prefer showcasing the journey and not the destination, and although there are more than enough scenes on the preparation of the dishes, the final presentation of the finished products seem more like an afterthought. Still, this isn’t a show to watch on an empty stomach, and is best followed by a big, satisfying meal after exiting the cinema.

Rating: * * * (out of four stars)

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Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon

Genre: Action

Director: Tsui Hark

Writers: Tsui Hark and Chang Chia-Lu

Cast: Mark Zhao, Angelababy, Carina Lau, Feng Shaofeng, Lin Gengxin, Ian Kim, Chen Kun

Running Length: 133 minutes

Synopsis: The young Dee (Mark Zhao) arrives in the Imperial Capital, intent to become an officer of the law. He becomes embroiled in solving the mystery of a “sea dragon” that had attacked the Imperial Navy, and also the mystery of another sea monster that seems bent on attacking a courtesan (Angelababy) and anyone around her.

Review: Tsui Hark’s second 3D outing after 2011’s Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (which I felt that was an unmitigated disaster of a movie), Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragons is the prequel of the successful 2010 movie Detective Dee: Mystery of the Phantom Flame, but devoid of any returning actors other than Carina Lau, reprising her role as Empress Wu Ze Tian.

The fresh faced cast is sure to appeal to a younger audience, but the bloat of the movie very nearly obliterates everything positive in the film. It is, after all, supposed to be a fun movie, but Tsui and Chang assemble a plot with so many different plot threads, many unsatisfactorily resolved, that the movie very nearly implodes under the weight of the narrative. The fact that a pretty straightforward tale takes over two hours to resolve is a sure sign that more prudent editing would have made Young Detective Dee a more palatable film.

That doesn’t mean the film is without its merits. The action choreography is top notch, and Tsui Hark does give these moments more than adequate screen time. The use of stereoscopic cameras in the filming of the movie should also mean better 3D effects, but Singaporean audiences will not know better as the only version airing in the cinemas seems to be the non-3D digital release. There’s great attention to detail in the film’s lush set design and opulent art direction, and while the computer generated imagery is still quite visible and occasionally jarring, it never detracts entirely from the rest of the movie.

Already facing the challenge of being much less charismatic than Andy Lau, Mark Zhao is simply unable to muster up enough screen presence to even make his Detective Dee stand out from the rest of the cast. The rest of the cast is similarly unremarkable, and even Carina Lau seems to be present to only up the star power of the film. Young Detective Dee also gets a bit too cute at times, imbuing Dee with what apparently seems to be X-ray vision and some very farfetched equipment (most notably, a horse that can travel faster underwater than on land). While suspension of disbelief is a must in such films, the level to which it must be done for this film makes it an almost impossible task except the truly forgiving, 

Perhaps the biggest problem with Young Detective Dee is that, despite being a movie about an intriguing mystery, telegraphs the answer from a mile away. There is no real mystery about the sea dragon nor the investigation of the case, and even the reveal is so long drawn out that the actual solution brings little joy. It always spells trouble when the b-roll spliced into the end credits feel more interesting than what ensued in the two hours prior.

Rating: * * ½ (out of four stars)

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2 Guns

Genre: Action

Director: Baltasar Kormakur

Writer: Blake Masters

Cast: Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, Paula Patton, Bill Paxton, Fred Ward, James Marsden, Edward James Olmos

Running Length: 109 minutes

Synopsis:  For the past 12 months, DEA agent Bobby Trench (Washington) and U.S. naval intelligence officer Michael Stigman (Wahlberg) have been reluctantly attached at the hip. Working undercover as members of a narcotics syndicate, each man distrusts his partner as much as the criminals they have both been tasked to take down. 

When their attempt to infiltrate a Mexican drug cartel and recover millions goes haywire, Trench and Stigman are suddenly disavowed by their superiors. Now that everyone wants them in jail or in the ground, the only person they can count on is the other. Unfortunately for their pursuers, when good guys spend years pretending to be bad, they pick up a few tricks along the way.

Review: 2 Guns is not a movie that strives to make much sense – in fact, one can say that the overplotted and clichéd script is actually the biggest negative of the film. What one can expect from the film, however, is great performances from the two leads, and an easy chemistry between the duo that’s of utmost importance in a buddy cop movie. That alone will not be able to elevate 2 Guns into a great movie, but at the very least it’s worth its price of admission. 

The less that is said about the plot, the better – 2 Guns has an extremely convoluted plot, featuring way too many vanilla villains (say that fast three times) for its own good. The “buddy cop” dramatic device literally takes forever to set up, and although the interaction between Wahlberg and Washington is what sells the movie, the water is muddied with too many inconsequential plot threads that serve nothing but pad out the running time of the (not very long) movie. To add insult to injury, 2 Guns tries to wrap everything up nicely with a bow tie, but the journey to the denouement takes such implausible turns that it needs a full disengagement of one’s sense of logic to accept the plot developments.

Fortunately, Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg make the proceedings much more bearable. Their banter is great and although the dialogue tends to branch off into the inconsequential, it’s consistently fun and the pairing works well enough.  And although the villains are not really menacing (even when doing some Very Bad Things), the trio of Bill Paxton, Edward James Olmos and James Marsden do manage to make a passing grade at least. Paula Patton, unfortunately, gets the role of the perfunctory hot chick with nothing much to do, but she does look amazingly hot while doing it so that’s a bonus for the target demographic.

There are no pretenses about what type of movie 2 Guns is – it’s not meant to be a serious commentary on corruption in the government, nor is it meant to be a taut thriller. It is meant to be an enjoyable, disposable buddy cop movie that moviegoers would not need to invest too much of their brain power when watching. If viewed from this perspective, then the film doesn’t do much wrong, even though the movie would have largely faded from memory on the trip back home from the cinema.

Rating: * * ½ (out of four stars)

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Behind the Candelabra

Genre: Drama

Director: Steven Soderberg

Writer: Richard LaGravenese, based on Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace by Scott Thorson and Alex Thorleifson

Cast: Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Dan Aykroyd, Rob Lowe, Scott Bakula

Running Length: 118 minutes

Synopsis: Before Elvis, before Elton John, Madonna and Lady Gaga, there was Liberace: virtuoso pianist, outrageous entertainer and flamboyant star of stage and television. A name synonymous with showmanship, extravagance and candelabras, he was a world-renowned performer with a flair that endeared him to his audiences and created a loyal fan base spanning his 40-year career. Liberace (Michael Douglas) lived lavishly and embraced a lifestyle of excess both on and off stage. In summer 1977, handsome young stranger Scott Thorson (Matt Damon) walked into his dressing room and, despite their age difference and seemingly different worlds, the two embarked on a secretive five-year love affair. Behind the Candelabra takes a behind-the-scenes look at their tempestuous relationship – from their first meeting backstage at the Las Vegas Hilton to their bitter and public break-up.

Review: It is interesting to see Soderberg take on Liberace as his final movie project (at least for now), albeit a TV movie made for HBO (here in Singapore we will get to experience the movie on the big screen), since he isn’t necessarily the first director one would think of when it comes to someone as showy as Liberace. However, Behind the Candelabra is very much a success on many counts – it is a briskly paced biopic with two very strong lead performances, and though poignant at times, remains entertaining from start to end.

It’s easy to turn any movie about Liberace into a parody, since it would not take much effort (if at all) to focus on the camp factor of his life and loves. Yet, despite the amount of sequins, rhinestones and other manner of bling and kitsch in the movie, the one thing that it isn’t is campy. It’s a triumph that despite the larger-than-life character that was Liberace, Soderberg’s rendition of Liberace’s life with Scott Thorson is measured and even-handed. Soderberg treats the material with a great amount of respect (and to a certain extent, sympathy) and never plays any scene for laughs, much as there are mirthful moments in the film.

Michael Douglas may seem to be an odd choice to be Liberace on paper, but his performance is certainly the strongest in the movie. He nails the character completely from the word go, and essentially disappears into the role. For two hours, the firmly heterosexual Michael Douglas IS the showy, flashy and very homosexual Liberace. Matt Damon is almost able to stand toe to toe with Michael Douglas in his turn as Scott, and it’s commendable that for someone who’s almost double the actual age of Scott can bring out the naïveté and guile that underscores the character. Damon isn’t as convincing, however, in the later parts of the movie when he has to portray Scott as an increasingly desperate drug addict. One other surprise is Rob Lowe, who is truly memorable as a plastic surgeon who has obviously gone too far in the remaking of his own face, although it can be argued that his makeup plays an equally important part as his thespian skills.

Being made for TV, the experience of watching it on the big screen does make the smaller, more intimate moments in the film feel a little out of place. However, there are also moments that transcend the TV movie confines, almost all of them involving Michael Douglas. Though this is a movie made from viewpoint of Scott Thorson, this is very much a showcase of Michael Douglas at his most impressive. He is also augmented by fine directing from Soderberg, and strong production values all around, from the music to the art direction and set designs.

The movie ends off with Liberace uttering the phrase “Too much of a good thing… is wonderful!” and that essentially is what we have here: a wonderful movie that isn’t too much, despite it being about Liberace, and that really is a very good thing.   

Rating: * * * ½ (out of four stars)

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That Girl in Pinafore

Genre: Drama

Director: Chai Yeewei

Writers: Chai Yeewei & Violet Lai

Cast: Daren Tan, Julie Tan, Seah Jiaqing, Kenny Khoo, Jayley Woo, Hayley Woo, Kelvin Mun, Sherly Devonne Ng

Running Length: 116 minutes

Synopsis: Set in Singapore in the early 90s, That Girl in Pinafore recounts the lives and love of a group of friends whose love of xinyao brings them together.

Review: At first glance, That Girl in Pinafore is immediately reminiscent of the 2011 Taiwan box office smash You Are the Apple of My Eye, and there definitely are similarities between the two films. Both tap into the power of nostalgia, and the story structure and character mix is almost identical. That Girl in Pinafore has one very big upside going for it (in Singapore at least), however – it’s a local movie, and it would be remiss to ignore the compounding effect of resonance on top of nostalgia. There would be no doubt that the movie will generate strong word of mouth, and barring the cinema operators’ whims and fancies, should see a relatively good run at the box office.

It’s also interesting to observe the small touches that director Yee Wei had put into the film – to enhance the veracity of the period setting, he managed to obtain relics from the bygone era, including pagers, old-school telephones, cassette tapes, and even a cheesy abdominal exercise machine.

However, strip away the nostalgia factor and the film does lose some of its sheen. The overt melodrama, especially in the final reel, wasn’t entirely necessary, and the young actors weren’t able to portray the weightier moments of the film well. The song performances were akin to Glee – although some of the new arrangements were interesting, the vocal quality (except perhaps Daren Tan, who is after all an ex-Project Superstar winner) of the cast was extremely uneven.

It was great to see part of my growing up days being re-enacted on the big screen, and that alone is worth the price of entry, but for audience members who are not acquainted with the xinyao movement or the early 90s would likely find the experience a more subdued one. There is no denying, however, that this is a heartfelt labour of love, and should receive kudos for bucking the norms of what defines a local movie. It’s also pleasant to note that despite having a slew of sponsors backing the movie, there were no overt product placements or awkward commercial messages.

Rating: * * * (out of four stars)

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The Wolverine

Genre: Action

Director: James Mangold

Writers: Christopher McQuarrie, Mark Bomback, Scott Frank, based on Wolverine by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Famke Janssen, Rila Fukushima, Tao Okamoto, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Will Yun Lee, Hiroyuki Sanada, Hal Yamanouchi

Running Length: 126 minutes

Synopsis: Based on the celebrated comic book arc, this epic action-adventure takes Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), the most iconic character of the X-Men universe, to modern day Japan. Out of his depth in an unknown world, he will face a host of unexpected and deadly opponents in a life-or-death battle that will leave him forever changed. Vulnerable for the first time and pushed to his physical and emotional limits, he confronts not only lethal samurai steel but also his inner struggle against his own immortality.

Review: The Wolverine is somewhat of an anomaly in the roster of summer blockbusters – although this is the sixth time Wolverine has featured in a movie, the film’s only name actors are Hugh Jackman and Famke Janssen, with the rest of the cast being relative unknowns. And despite what the trailers might have suggested, this is actually a rather intimately shot film, with only a handful of action set pieces in  itstwo-hour plus running time. While the storyline is undoubtedly engaging, and the film as a whole is definitely superior to the dreary X-Men Origins: Wolverine, it remains to be seen if the film’s box office would be impacted by mismatched expectations of the audience.

The Wolverine comes off to a pretty slow start – the initial exposition takes up more than half an hour before any true action is witnessed on screen, by which time it’s abundantly clear to audiences that this movie is trying to be more than just the typical summer action blockbuster. Credit must be given to Mangold for trying to delve deeper into the psyche of Wolverine and what makes him tick, but it isn’t always very successful. All the Jean Grey visions in particular are cheesy and cringe-worthy, but there are moments of introspection that feel as though he has succeeded somewhat.

Apart from this, The Wolverine is a pretty formulaic superhero movie offering up few surprises. There’s the obligatory (in this case, extremely obligatory) romantic interest, the typical action sequences, and the final showdown. The finale is particularly disappointing, because the villains seem to pose very little threat to the heroes and are quite quickly dispatched. Wolverine’s loss of his super healing powers (much vaunted in the slew of trailers and pre-publicity) also don’t manage to make too much of a difference. Thankfully there is at least a refreshing take on the typical “brawl atop a speeding train” sequence, since it happens on a bullet train travelling at 300km/h, which changes the rules of combat and physics somewhat.

Placing Wolverine in a foreign locale does also help to shake things up a bit. Apart from Wolverine, Jean Grey and Viper, every other character of note are Japanese, often speaking in their native tongue. This is an interesting gambit for a summer film, since subtitles are popular amongst the typical movie-going crowd, but suffice to say it being of the X-Men universe will ease the discomfort somewhat. Mangold and the writers do play quite hard and fast with the canon of the story arc the movie is based on, which may annoy the hardcore Marvel and X-Men fans, but otherwise there’s really nothing glaringly out of place with the plot. X-Men fans would be particularly pleased with the coda just after the first segment of the end credits, which alludes to the already-announced X-Men: Days of Future Past, coming our way summer of 2014.

Rating: * * ½ (out of four stars)

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Before Midnight

Genre: Drama

Director: Richard Linklater

Writers: Richard Linklater & Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy

Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy

Running Length: 109 minutes

Synopsis: In Before Midnight, we meet Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) 9 years on. Almost 2 decades have passed since that first meeting on a train bound for Vienna, and we now find them in their early 40’s in Greece. Before the clock strikes midnight, we will again become part of their story.

Review: It’s rare for a movie these days to be entirely about dialogue, but Richard Linklater’s sequel to the well-loved Before Sunrise and Before Sunset movies is exactly that. Yes, this is about as much of a “talkie” as one can get, but when the dialogue is of such high quality it’s impossible to fault. Before Midnight bucks the increasingly popular trend of dumbing down movies for the largest possible mass audience, and yet remains such a pleasure to watch that audiences who are mentally prepared for the movie would find themselves richly rewarded.

A caveat: although Before Midnight can be viewed as a standalone movie, much of the context would be lost if one has not watched Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, so much so that it should almost be a prerequisite. Having gotten that out of the way, for viewers who are familiar with Jesse and Celine, this movie answers the “what if?” definitively – the two have become an item, and in the time the audience have spent apart from them, they have also become parents to a pair of twins. While it was all magical romance in the previous instalments, Before Midnight takes the duo in a slightly different direction. Interactions between the couple are now tinged with more real world weariness and bitterness, although it’s still clear that love remains between the two.

The truly impressive feat about Before Midnight is how real it all feels. There are moments in Before Midnight where it almost doesn’t feel like a scripted movie at all, and there’s a distinct sense of deja vu because all of it feels so familiar and so true to real life. The centrepiece in the latter part of the film is an argument between Jesse and Celine, and I dare say anyone who’s attached or married would find that scene eerily close to at least one occasion that they would have experienced themselves.  The first half of the film also features a dinner table conversation amongst friends that would possibly rank as the most memorable and impressive dramatic set piece this year. It may all seem prosaic at first, but the way that scene builds and builds (and its eventual conclusion) is simply remarkable writing and filmmaking.

Linklater never allows anything to overtake the interaction between the couple, with camerawork (and even the soundtrack) kept to a very simplistic level. Together with the fact that Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy are both intimately acquainted with their respective characters (they are also credited as co-writers in this instalment, as they were in Before Sunset), it is little wonder that the level of verisimilitude is so high. It’s tempting to suggest that these characters are at least in part a reflection of the actors’ true selves, because it almost doesn’t feel like they are inhabiting a character at times.

While the previous films have been left relatively open-ended, the denouement of Before Midnight feels more definite. There seems to be little wiggle room and does seem to close off the possibility of another sequel, but when the level of enjoyment one can obtain from the trifecta, it would be a pleasure either way. It’s hard to imagine any other movie being able to reach such dramatic perfection this year.

Rating: * * * * (out of four stars)

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Pacific Rim * * * 1/2

Genre: Sci-Fi, Action

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Writers: Travis Beacham & Guillermo del Toro

Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi, Idris Elba, Charlie Day, Max Martini, Ron Perlman

Running Length: 131 minutes

Synopsis: When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity’s resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju.

On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes – a washed up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi) – who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind’s last hope against the mounting apocalypse.

Review: Pacific Rim is what the Transformers film should have been – it’s a behemoth of an effects movie, loud and brash and all guns blazing from the word go, but doesn’t eschew a proper storyline in exchange for CG effects and action sequences. Guillermo Del Toro has crafted a very impressive film here – minus some bad science and logic, this is about as entertaining as the monsters versus giant robots sub genre gets.

It’s clear that the film is targeted mainly at teenaged boys (just like Transformers), and so the proceedings remain very chaste throughout – there’s very little true violence and bloodshed (barring kaiju blood, but it’s about as gruesome as an ad for diapers, blue liquid and all), and virtually zero sexual chemistry between the two leads. The focus is really on the mecha and the monsters, which fortunately are rendered very well. Action sequences are cleanly shot, with none of the confusion that plagued all the Transformers movies, and the film is pretty evenly paced with little downtime.

Pacific Rim is also a rare action film which successfully balances the OTT action sequences with exposition, which allows audiences to feel more vested in the proceedings. There’s also immense attention paid to the finer details of the universe that Pacific Rim is set in – for example, Jaegers each have their own unique look and feel, and it’s readily apparent that a lot of painstaking work was put into making the Shatterdome and other environments look just right. Unlike Transformers and the ilk, there’s no lazy filmmaking to be found in Pacific Rim. This is also a film in which paying for a third dimension doesn’t feel like a pure money grab – the action sequences felt enhanced and even more visceral when viewed in (IMAX) 3D.

That’s not to say that the film is without issues – apart from the junky science (apparent even to a layperson like me), one of the biggest problems the movie has is with the choice of its main lead. Although Charlie Hunnam bears the looks and build of an all-American hero, his thespian skills leave much to be desired, and some of his line delivery is so poor it’s almost comical. To be fair, the rest of the cast is perfectly serviceable (Rinko Kikuchi and Mana Ashida, the child actress playing the younger version of Mako, are the most memorable), and the one scene where Raleigh and Mako face off in physical combat is flirtatious fun.   

Guillermo del Toro has not attempted a project of this size prior, but he has now shown that tackling a big summer blockbuster is not out of the question for him. Pacific Rim borders on being a guilty pleasure – it is hugely enjoyable with the standard trappings of an action film, and yet delves just enough beyond the superficial that it doesn’t become featureless, mindless action tedium. The final title card in the end credits pay tribute to Ray Harryhausen (master of stop motion animation films like the original Clash of the Titans) and Ishiro Honda (the director of Godzilla – the original film, not the pale Hollywood remake), and the film indeed is a shining example of how Harryhausen and Honda’s films would look like if made with the trappings of 21st Century technology and modern sensibilities.

Rating: * * * ½ (out of four stars)

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