Movie Review: Wall-e

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My Rating: 5Stars

This evening I saw the movie “Walle” at AMC Theater, Pacific Place, Admiralty, Hong Kong.

Again Pixar did not disappoint.

Pixar’s typical smart intelligent humor was prevalent throughout the movie. After several minutes into the movie the audiences has forgotten it’s an animation, understood the background of the story, and all without a single word being spoken.

Without much dialogue the director, Andrew Stanton (who in this case was also the writer) was able to capture the audiences’ attention while delivering an intriguing and timely story about the importance of taking care of our environment and planet.

I always like Pixar movies: Toy StoryA Bug’s LifeToy Story 2Monsters, Inc.Finding NemoThe IncrediblesCars and Ratatouille. and this one was no exception. They always contain what I call smart-humor, where the audiences would need to give it some thought to realize how funny a particular dialogue or scene was. They often made me want to watch the movie again to catch all the things I missed the first time.

I am glad to have placed this on my Must See Movies list and definitely one not to be missed for fans of Pixar Animation Studio.

Finally, for those Macintosh fans among us, the animators at Pixar left us an easter egg. See if you catch it in the movie as I did?

Rating Legend:
5Stars Not to be missed
4Stars Wait for the DVD
3Stars Buy from iTunes Store
2Stars Rent it on iTunes
1Stars Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: Ratatouille

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My Rating: 5Stars

This evening I saw the pre-screening of the movie “Ratatouille” at Golden Harvest Multiplex, Mongkok.

Yes, many of you who knows me may ask,

Why am I going to see this movie in Mongkok of all places?

Well for one thing, it is a special preview prior to the actual Hong Kong release date of August 2, 2007, and the tickets were free; as I had won them from a “BC Magazine” contest. Speaking of the contest, that is another blog entry of mine.

This is the first movie after The Walt Disney Company’s purchase of Pixar Animation Studios in 2006, which now becomes part of the Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group.

It took 7 months, but I finally able to give a movie my 5 penguin rating. I am so glad that it was a Pixar movie. It is also the first movie this year that the audience applauded when the movie finished.

The animation in the movie was so accurate and realistic that each time a scene with rats swamping, it made the hairs on the back of my head stand on its end.

The story was also very original with the typical smart humor that Pixar is always famous for. The last movie with such great humor was “Finding Nemo“.

The actor that played “Remy” was Patton Oswalt, whom I’ve seen in the TV series “The Kings of Queens“. Fortunately, I did not know or remember that, since I did not like his character in the TV series. Here Remy’s sad cuteness is adorable and lovable by the entire audience young and old.

I will definitely purchase the movie for my digital library and may even go see it one more time. Since these tickets were free from the contest at BC Magazine (yet another article for my blog).

So far this year, if there was any movie you must see, this is definitely the one.

Rating Legend:
5Stars Not to be missed
4Stars Wait for the DVD
3Stars Buy from iTunes Store
2Stars Rent it if you can
1Stars Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: Shrek The Third

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My Rating: 3Stars

This evening I saw the movie “Shrek The Third” at JP Theater, Causeway Bay.

This has not been a good series and I really don’t know why I keep going to see it. Unfortunately, this latest movie in the series did not break that trend.

I think my main disappointment with the series is its sense of humor in the movie. The writers at Dreamworks seem to worry that the audience will not get the intended humor, so they make the joke very obvious so much so that they are no longer funny. It is what I called, the “in your face humor”. In comparison, Pixar’s humor is much more subtle and more my liking.

The plot of this movie was weak and was nothing special. There is a great deal of expectation for the audience to know about western fairy tales to be able to get all the subtle inferences to these fairy tales. But this may not be necessary for the numerous young audience that this movie was intended. Judging by the young audiences in the theater, Dreamworks was very successful in entertaining them.

So my 3 penguins rating above is merely for the adult audience. If I was under the age of 10 I may give this move a 4 penguins rating.

Rating Legend:
5Stars Not to be missed
4Stars Wait for the DVD
3Stars Buy from iTunes Store
2Stars Rent it if you can
1Stars Waste your time elsewhere