comedy – Page 3 – Vinko’s Thoughts On…

August 30, 2008

Movie Review: Made of Honor

Poster

My Rating:

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

I had not plan to see this movie hence, I did not include it into my Must See Movies list. I was happy to say that I was presently surprised.

Patrick Dempsey played a perfect playboy, Thomas ‘Tom’ Bailey who did not have a care in the world because he invented the coffee cup collar and now lives off its royalties. Michelle Monaghan from The Bourne Supremacy, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Mission: Impossible III and the soon to release Eagle Eye was a perfect match to Dempsey’s character.

Like movies that came before it, Julia Roberts‘ Runaway Bride and My Best Friend’s Wedding it had the hero not realizing the best thing he has is right in front of him. So the plot of the movie tells the story of how the hero tries to win the heron over.

If there was more to the plot I would have given this movie more penguins. In either case, it is an enjoyable women’s movie.

Rating Legend:
	Not to be missed
	Wait for the DVD
	Buy from iTunes Store
	Rent it on iTunes
	Waste your time elsewhere

August 22, 2008

Movie Review: Get Smart

Poster

My Rating:

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

It was not one of the movies very high up on my Must See Movies list, but since there was a typhoon in Hong Kong and there was nothing else to watch other than the 2008 Olympic games
on TV.

I was presently surprised by the movie, particularly Steve Carell of the Almighty franchise: Evan Almighty and Bruce Almighty fame. He played the character Maxwell Smart very well, giving it the same style that Don Adams made famous, Mel Brooks created in the TV Show of the same name from the late 60s. I believe Carell’s performance would have made Adams proud if he was alive.

Of course talking about Maxwell Smart, aka Agent 86, one cannot forget his partner, Agent 99, in this movie played by Anne Hathaway. Who did a great job in bring the character that Barbara Feldon had made famous from the 60s TV show.

All in all, for the Get Smart fans, I believe this is a good tribute to the 60s character. The writers, Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember had set up the movie to have the potential to become yet another franchise if the box offices show good results.

Rating Legend:
	Not to be missed
	Wait for the DVD
	Buy from iTunes Store
	Rent it on iTunes
	Waste your time elsewhere

August 10, 2008

Movie Review: Wall-e

Poster

My Rating:

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 Story, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars 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:
	Not to be missed
	Wait for the DVD
	Buy from iTunes Store
	Rent it on iTunes
	Waste your time elsewhere

August 2, 2008

Movie Review: The Mummy – Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Poster

My Rating:

This evening I saw the movie “The Mummy – Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” at UA Cinema, Time Square, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong.

Give it a miss even if you don’t have something else better to waste your time on.

I never like the movies that Brendan Fraser is in, with the latest version of The Mummy that further proves my feelings.

I always say how sequels needs to keep the ties between episodes, the worst thing a sequel does is to change the main characters in the story. This episode, they went and change the female lead character, Evelyn Carnahan O’Connell from Rachel Weisz to Maria Bello.

Although, they have movie industries big wigs like Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh.

The short but significant appearance of my friend’s, Michael Wong brother Russell Wong was a present surprise. Mainly because I did not read the credits before attending the movie.

Rating Legend:
	Not to be missed
	Wait for the DVD
	Buy from iTunes Store
	Rent it on iTunes
	Waste your time elsewhere

May 31, 2008

Movie Review: Penelope

Poster

My Rating:

This evening I saw the movie “Penelope” at UA Cinema, Time Square, Hong Kong.

I was presently surprised by this movie. I went into the movie thinking it was just going to be another lesson-learned movie. It did have the black-swan element to the movie that one would come to expect. The several twists in the story were nice touches to give it the unexpected elements.

I don’t normally enjoy this sort of movies; I am more of the action adventure, thriller kind of a guy.

The acting was fair, but I think the story has much to convince me to give it a 3 penguins rating. If you were looking for a light hearted entertainment for a present afternoon, then do give it a try. Of course, as my rating states, if you can rent it even better.

Rating Legend:
	Not to be missed
	Wait for the DVD
	Buy from iTunes Store
	Rent it on iTunes
	Waste your time elsewhere

November 24, 2007

Movie Review: The Heartbreak Kid (2007)

Poster

My Rating:

This evening I saw the movie “The Heartbreak Kid” at Time Square, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong.

Ben Stiller always plays a character in his movies: “Meet the Parents“, “Meet the Fockers“, “Along Came Polly” and alike. Where his character is the underdog, started out a good nature hero and then forced into situations that makes him appears to be the bad guy, as a result the heroin misunderstands him. This movie was no exception.

So if you are a fan of Ben Stiller, you will not be disappointed. If you’re looking for something different and original, you will need to look elsewhere.

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

September 30, 2007

Movie Review: The Nanny Diaries

Poster

My Rating:

This evening I saw the movie “The Nanny Diaries” at JP Theatre, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong.

A present little movie. I really did not like Scarlett Johansson in “Lost in Translation” or “The Island“. I wanted to watch “The Prestige“, but had yet gotten around to it so I could not say if Johansson was any good in it.

Many believed she’s sexy, but I do not share those opinions. In this movie she played a young university graduate who was a bit misguided as to what she wanted as her career, and stumbled into a profession that she had not have any pervious experiences, nor what her mother had hope for her. It proved that sometimes it paid to be in the right place at the right time.

Of course, there was a love interest for Johansson’s character, “Annie”, and of course he was the Abercrombie & Fitch type, played by Chris Evans.

Overall this was a fun entertaining movie that worth going to if you could not think of anything else better to do.

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

July 10, 2007

Movie Review: Ratatouille

My Rating:

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:
	Not to be missed
	Wait for the DVD
	Buy from iTunes Store
	Rent it if you can
	Waste your time elsewhere

June 28, 2007

Movie Review: Shrek The Third

My Rating:

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:
	Not to be missed
	Wait for the DVD
	Buy from iTunes Store
	Rent it if you can
	Waste your time elsewhere

June 8, 2007

Movie Review: Ocean’s 13

My Rating:

This evening I saw the movie “Ocean’s 13” at UA Time Square, Causeway Bay.

Unfortunately, this is yet another movie that fell into the sequel hole. In my opinion the only one from the series that’s original was the first one “Ocean’s 11“, which was a remake of the 1960 original.

Yes, the clothes on George Clooney and Brad Pitt, but other than that there is really no surprise in this one and the plot is even weaker.

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