2 Guns | Movie review

Movie reviews

2 Guns | Movie review

Unknown  

Release date in Malaysia: September 19th 2013
Distributor / studio: Sony Pictures / Boom! Studios
Rated: 18
Genre: Action comedy
Running Time: 119 minutes
Director: Baltasar Kormákur
Screenplay: Blake Master
Cast: Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, Paula Patton, Bill Paxton, James Marsden, Fred Ward, Edward James Olmos

Synopsis: An explosive action film that tracks two operatives from competing bureaus who are forced on the run together. But there is a big problem with their unique alliance: Neither knows that the other is an undercover federal agent. When their attempt to infiltrate a Mexican drug cartel and recover millions goes haywire, Trench & 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.


Verdict: This film proves that a formulaic bromance concept filled with corny cliches can still be highly entertaining and fun to sit through if it has the right pair of actors to partner up with tight on-screen chemistry. The typical plot and predictability are a non-issue as viewers may likely be amused by the hilarious quick wit and veteran charm of both Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg, despite having them portray same personality as they always do in movies they act in. With Paula Patton wooden acting but does enough as an eye candy, 2Guns passes with flying colours as the less slapstick and more brutal version of The Other Guys.

Girlfriend's opinion: "Very funny, better than I had expected; good performance from the two."

Malaysian censorship: Angles with the appearance of Paula Patton's pair of nipples were cut at the premiere screening (thankfully we can see them on online) along with one dialogue that's strangely chopped off as well. It's strange 'cause the whole movie's already filled with vulgar phrases anyway. With inconsistency of our local board of film censorship, we shouldn't be surprised actually.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

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How corny the ending is: 2 men against THREE DIFFERENT GROUPS of bad guys which kicks off out in the open where bullets can come from any direction. They could've just let 'em fight each other out for the money that they're after and then shoot from afar (since Mark Wahlberg's character Stig is a sharp shooter in the story) but nooOOoo, they just have to do the Mr. & Mrs. Smith corny bullshit. Fortunately the ending didn't spoil the entire film for me.



Mark Wahlberg has something against Prius or is he advertising for Toyota?




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Malavita | Movie review

Movie reviews

Malavita | Movie review

Unknown  

US official title: The Family
Release date in Malaysia: September 19th 2013
Distributor / studio: GSC Movies / Malavita
Rated: 18
Genre: Action comedy
Running Time: 120 minutes
Director: Luc Besson
Writer: Tonino Benacquista, Luc Besson, Michael Caleo
Cast: Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tommy Lee Jones, Dianna Agron, John D'Leo

Synopsis: Follows Manzonis, a notorious mafia family who gets relocated to France under the witness protection program. While they do their best to fit in, old habits die hard and they soon find themselves handling things the "family" way. Michelle Pfeiffer will play Robert De Niro's wife who has a penchant for arson when crossed.


Verdict: Perhaps one of the better films under the direction of Luc Besson, but that doesn't mean it's good. It's not even a decent waste of time. But close though. It's all about a family of a former mafia boss that's hiding from being assassinated, coping in a country they're not familiar with, dealing with an extremely strict FBI agent (played by Tommy Lee Jones, yeah, awesome to see his grumpy acting again) who's trying protect them. All of that portrayed with a very small dose of dull dark humour and zero chemistry from the great huge veteran actors. If it wasn't for the beautiful Dianna Agron, I probably would've dozed off. Also, it's a great mystery why Besson thought it's okay not to at least explain why and how the protagonist Giovanni (Robert De Niro) snitched, which got his family in this current state. Worst of all is the film's very short climax, leading to an abrupt ending which makes this whole film seem absolutely pointless. Malavita, or The Family, has little entertainment value, even when compared to We're the Millers.

Girlfriend's opinion: "Funny but quite forgettable. I can't even remember much of it already."

What Malavita means: It means "badfellas", "underworld" or "gangland" in Italian.

Dianna Agron... proves here that she's one of those very rare actresses who can look smoking hot and extremely seductive without huge tits or showing much skin.

Malaysian censorship: The word 'fuck' plays quite a role in the movie so no vulgarities were censored at the press screening. The scene completely chopped off is the love scene involving Dianna Agron... damn it.

Rating: 1.5 / 5

Movie stills / images: View 'em here.

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Uncommon things can you learn from this movie: That the French are assholes, they're easily amazed by a somebody from America and for reasons not explained, peanut butter is not popular in their country.




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Prisoners (2013) | Movie review

Movie reviews

Prisoners (2013) | Movie review

Unknown  

Release date in Malaysia: September 20th 2013
Distributor / studio: Nusantara (NEF) / Alcon Ent.
Rated: 18
Genre: Thriller, mystery, suspense
Running Time: 152 minutes
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Writer: Aaron Guzikowski
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Hugh Jackman, Terrence Howard and Melissa Leo

Synopsis: Revolves around a small-town carpenter named Keller (Hugh Jackman) whose young daughter and her best friend are kidnapped. After the cops fail to find them, Keller takes the law into his own hands, but in the process runs up against Detective Loki, a hot shot cop with confidence to burn, assigned to the case.


Verdict: This is definitely one of its genre's greatest within the decade, along with the likes of Zodiac (2007) and Memories of Murder (2003). Although the story of Prisoners relies on a few coincidences, the script is very well written and masterfully orchestrated by the mystery specialist Villeneuve. Along with the strong performance by cast (an overkill one by Hugh Jackman) and horror-like gripping cinematography, this highly enjoyable flick may be looking at an Oscar nomination or two. Movie-goers who prefer the usual fast-paced, no-brainer Hollywood stuffs may not appreciate the seemingly slower pacing of the film, which is totally required to develop the characters, engage emotionally, build up the suspense and keep the audience guessing. Although I understand that the film has its purpose, it may have been tastier if the ending's 30 seconds shorter 'cause that would leave a deeper, darker mark (watch it & you'd get what I mean).

Girlfriend's opinion: "It's good but is it just me or is it too slow paced?"

Malaysian censorship: Nothing for notably censored. All F-bombs intact with a considerably graphic scene. The Malay & Chinese subtitles are poor translations though, almost hilarious. "You're getting heavier." => "Kau semakin gemuk." "I found these and some other shit." => literally translated to Chinese.

Rating: 4 / 5

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Religious purpose of the film: I'm an atheist but I'm all for movies that are brilliant enough to leave barely noticeable signs of religion either to promote a religion or just to provoke thoughts. In this case for me, Prisoners got me thinking about it. You see? Very smart. So in the film, it is revealed that the couple, who kidnap children, do it to get families to lose faith in their religion. This is to "start a war against god" 'cause they blame god for not preventing their son from dying of cancer. Throughout the movie, Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) has never lost faith and prays at the beginning right before his son shoots the deer, whenever he's about to torture the suspect that might have kidnapped his daughter and even when it seems that both he and his daughter may die together in the hole. He just holds on to his faith, prays and in the end they all survived, saved by the detective by the name of Loki (name of a god in Norse mythology). That's all I managed to decipher on my own at the moment. Pretty sure some geek would come up with a more detailed writeup about this in days to come.

Two convincing messages: One, bad things could happen when you least expected it so you can never be too careful (particularly in Malaysia these days, please don't let your children go out alone!). Two, parents would do anything for their children so don't fuck with little kids, people!

Standout scene: The part where Keller Dover notices that he's being followed by Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) and goes confronting him. In the car, Dover has to hide his secret of imprisoning suspect Alex Jones (Paul Dano) without being suspicious while being angry (that Loki still hasn't found his missing daughter), sad and miserable at the same time. "It's day six and everyday she's wondering why I'm not there to rescue her. Me! Not you!" *Slams the car's dashboard hard twice* What an intense performance by Mr. Wolverine!



Loki versus The Joker's minion (David Dastmalchian from The Dark Knight)?




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Detective Conan: Private Eye in the Distant Sea | Movie review

Movie reviews

Detective Conan: Private Eye in the Distant Sea | Movie review

Unknown  

Japanese title: 名探偵コナン 絶海の探偵
Alternative English title: Case Closed: Private Eye in the Distant Sea
Release date in Malaysia: September 12th 2013 (GSC JFF 2013 only)
Rated: P13
Distributor / studio: GSC Movies / TMS Entertainment
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: English, Chinese, Malay
Genre: Animation
Running Time: 110 minutes
Director: Shizuno Kobun
Cast: Takayama Minami, Yamazaki Wakana, Koyama Rikiya

Synopsis: The movie is set on a state-of-the art Aegis vessel with the full co-operation of Japan's real-life Ministry of Defense and Maritime Self-Defense Force. The corpse of a Self-Defense Force member has been found — minus the left arm and a spy has infiltrated the Aegis vessel. The heroine Ran is put in jeopardy, and Conan is forced to stand up against the dangerous Spy "X”.


Verdict: I've never read the Detective Conan manga series or watch any of its animes and watching this film sort of made me glad that I didn't. Maybe I'm just too old for this? Simply put, Case Closed: Private Eye in the Distant Sea may be passable to old fans but to the audience like myself, it'd be just one hell of a boring Japanese cartoon about the Sherlock Holmes-cum-James Bond titular protagonist that appears like a kid going around solving an uninteresting murder case on a ship 'cause it's all talk, totally dull with no character conflicts, action-less, typical anime logic, and again, the case is not intriguing at all. The predictable, cheesy ending is so unintentionally hilarious, I almost feel embarrassed to be in the cinema hall. Not to mention about the pointless, cheap, laggy 3D CGI's. Maybe little kids might like the movie, that is if they're educated enough to read and understand the tiny and fast subtitles.

Girlfriend's opinion: "I'm a fan of the comics but not this film."

Opinion of a father who's with his kid: "Not very nice to watch."

Malaysian censorship: A patriotic Japanese kids anime with absolutely nothing to censor and yet this film's classified as P13 along with all the other films released recently that have topics of sex and violence. #ApaNih

Rating: 1 / 5




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ONE FC 10: Champions & Warriors | Results, recap & review

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

ONE FC 10: Champions & Warriors | Results, recap & review

Unknown  

Colossa wins by easy decision after dominating in standup battle against Boku

Ironically, Champions & Warriors was without a single ONE FC champion on the card and with the actual main event between Andrew Leone & Shinichi Kojima being pulled out completely without any replacement, hardcore MMA fans could only wish for these other bouts were able to make up for it... unfortunately they didn't. This has got to be the least entertaining ONE Fighting Championship of the year with 6 out of 10 bouts ended within the minutes, if not seconds, of the first rounds with submissions. It lacked of exciting match-ups and the fights didn't turn out as good as previous ONE FC cards; harsh but true.

It was a slow start in the main event, with both fighters testing each other's reactions throughout round 1. Viyusile Colossa seemed to have loads of energy, moving a lot with his light-hopping footwork and air jabs. 2nd round was the beginning of the end for the former ONE FC Lightweight Champion Kotetsu "No Face" Boku as his opponent found his range with his powerful low kicks, some which were followed up with some clean punches to his face. Boku back pedaled a lot, running away from Colossa's gradual advances. There were a few odd times where it seemed like he tried to punch but ended up with his face landing forward. In the final round, Colossa began to feel even more comfortable with his low kick-punches combinations. Boku attempted a few times to time a counter overhand right when his opponent kicks but none connected significantly. Colossa had a good chance to finish the fight when Boku got tagged till his back was on the fence but Colossa remained discipline, backed off after his deadly series of knees and elbows failed to drop Boku. The former champ from Japan sure has a hell of a chin but it was the South African kickboxer who won by unanimous judges decision in the end.

Although the live broadcast didn't show much of the audience, the atmosphere in the Istora Senayan stadium of Jakarta Indonesia seemed to be quite awesome as the noise from the crowd was pretty loud on TV. The performance of their local heroes weren't bad, winning 2 out of 4 on the night. Our Malaysian representatives both had their bouts ended quickly. Raymond Tan choked out his Indonesian opponent Brianata Rosadhi within 22 seconds whereas 19 year-old Eugenio Tan couldn't escape Vincent Majid's persistent dangerous, keylock submission which ended with a referee stoppage. The co-main event bout also ended fast in the first round after Willy Ni (apparently a Malaysian representing Netherlands) tapped out to the guillotine choke by Indonesian Vincent Latoel.

ONE FC: Champions and Warriors Results

MAIN EVENT
Lightweight: Vuyisile Colossa def. Kotetsu Boku via Unanimous Decision

MAIN CARD
Lightweight: Vincent Latoel def. Willy Ni via Submission (guillotine choke) - R1 1:51
Catchweight (90kg): Jake Butler def. James Kouame via Submission (arm triangle choke) - R1 2:11
Featherweight: Bruno Pucci def. Bashir Ahmad via Submission (rear naked choke) - R1 3:13
Light Heavyweight: Vincent Majid def. Eugenio Tan via Technical Submission (keylock) - R1 1:30
Flyweight: Almiro Barros def. Kian Pham via Unanimous Decision
Heavyweight: Alain Ngalani def. Mahmoud Hassan via KO (spinning wheel kick & punches) - R1 0:31

UNDER CARD
Lightweight: Caros Fodor def. Yang Seung Ho via Unanimous Decision
Featherweight: Max Metino def. Long Sophy via Technical Submission (keylock) - R2 3:24
Flyweight: Raymond Tan def. Brianata Rosadhi via Technical Submission (guillotine choke) - R1 0:21

Official weigh-in results here.


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