Movie Review: Contraband

 Contraband
Contraband

My Rating:

 Buy from iTunes Store   

This evening I saw the movie Contraband at JP MLC Theater, JP Plaza, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. One of the movies from my Must See Movies list, and the following is my movie review.

First of all I will never go to JP MCL Theater again. The design of the theater is such that the seats are way too close to the screen of the cinema. It gave me a headache after only 15 minutes into the movie.

Aside from the headache from seating too close, the movie is fairly good. Mark Wahlberg plays Chris Farraday, an ex-smuggler who turned legit, with a wife, two kids and a custom alarm installation company.

The plot is not that original and some what expected. Farraday’s brother-in-law got in trouble with a gangster after a failed smuggling run, forcing Farraday back into the business he promise his wife and himself not to get back into just to save his family. Telling you any more will just give away the entire movie.

If you have other options at the cinemas definitely save this one for iTunes.

Rating Legend:

 Must watch before you die
Must watch before you die
 Wait for the Blu-ray
Wait for the Blu-ray
 Buy from iTunes Store
Buy from iTunes Store
 Rent it on iTunes
Rent it on iTunes
 Waste your time elsewhere
Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: Sherlock Holmes – A Game of Shadows

 Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes

My Rating:

 Rent it on iTunes

This evening I saw the movie Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows at AMC Cinemas, Pacific Place, Admiralty, Hong Kong. One of the movies from my Must See Movies list, and the following is my movie review.

This is the first sequel that I wish there will not be another.

It stars the “always nominated but never wins”, Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. Now with this movie the audiences can clearly see why.

Downey returns to play his ever eccentric and love-thy-self Holmes and Law plays the trusty sidekick who wants to give up on Holmes but can’t bare the thought of doing so. There are so many scenes in the movie that I still cannot figure out the purpose of them being in the movie. Given the movie is center around Holmes’ ultimate rival, Professor Moriarty, I find the plot to be too weak, and there are not enough excitement or intrigue to keep the audiences at the edges of their seats.

The movie is so unmemorable that I have already forgotten the ending. Unfortunately, there’s not many movies to choose from during the Holiday breaks, but this is still one to avoid at the theatres.

Rating Legend:

 Must watch before you die
Must watch before you die
 Wait for the Blu-ray
Wait for the Blu-ray
 Buy from iTunes Store
Buy from iTunes Store
 Rent it on iTunes
Rent it on iTunes
 Waste your time elsewhere
Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol

 Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

My Rating:

  Wait for the Blu-ray

This evening I saw the movie Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol at AMC Cinemas, Pacific Place, Admiralty, Hong Kong. One of the movies from my Must See Movies list, and the following is my movie review.

It has been 5 years since the last edition in this version of the Mission: Impossible franchise. Unlike the previous two movies this one is worth the wait. Again it stars Tom Cruise as “Ethan Hunt“, only Simon Pegg returns from the previous edition, Mission: Impossible III. The favorites: Ving Rhames and Michelle Monaghan, also earn cameo roles in this movie.

Without leaving fans hanging from previous editions or loose new audiences, it continues the story from the last movie in the franchise, and slowly develops the characters we are not familiar with.

In the past movies I complain that they lost the “clever trickeries” of the original TV shows, happy to say that this movie brings back all the cleverness while retaining the light and appropriate use of technologies throughout the movie. One exception is the Minority Report style screen in the BMW Vision EfficientDynamics that really did not serve any purpose other than nostalgia for Cruise fans.

Overall it was an exciting and action pack movie that will give anyone an entertaining movie outing, not just the Cruise fans.

Rating Legend:

 Must watch before you die
Must watch before you die
 Wait for the Blu-ray
Wait for the Blu-ray
  Buy from iTunes Store
Buy from iTunes Store
 Rent it on iTunes
Rent it on iTunes
  Waste your time elsewhere
Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: Source Code

Poster

My Rating: 3Stars

This afternoon I saw the movie Source Code at AMC Cinemas, Pacific Place, Admiralty, Hong Kong. One of the movies from my Must See Movies list.

It stars Jake Gyllenhaal (as Captain Colter Stevens) and Michelle Monaghan (as Christina). Without giving away the plot, it is about a military pilot (Captain Stevens) who wakes up inside someone else’s body and had to figure out what happened.

Continue reading “Movie Review: Source Code”

Movie Review: Overheard《竊聽風雲》

Poster

My Rating: 3Stars

This evening I saw the movie premier of Overheard《竊聽風雲》 at Grand Cinema, Elements, West Kowloon, Hong Kong. Not one of the movies from my Must See Movies list.

It stars 劉青雲 (Lau Ching-wan), 古天樂 (Louis Koo), 吳彥祖 (Daniel Wu) and 王敏德 (Michael F. Wong), with the former being one of my favorite actors, which I’ve watched almost every one of his movies.

The plot of the movie is smiple. It is about a unit of the CIB unit of the Hong Kong Police being assigned to keep surveillance on a company that the government is investigating. The movie did not spend enough time building the characters and background. There were moments of mission-impossible-esq scenes to create suspense but did not really carry through the movie. The several twists in the plot were too predictable and did not give the audience the feeling of originality.

Continue reading “Movie Review: Overheard《竊聽風雲》”

Movie Review: Murderer《殺人犯》

Poster

My Rating: 1Stars

This evening I saw the movie Murderer at AMC Theater, Pacific Place, Hong Kong. Another one of the movies from my Must See Movies list. After seeing the movie in person I had to remove it from my Must See Movies list.

Yes, it was that bad. If it was not for Aaron Kwok the movie would have easily become one of Hong Kong’s many B-movies. Fans of Kwok will be angry with me, but I felt that every scene Kwok was in he was trying to imitate Jack Nicholson and Johnny Depp. I guess in a way it was necessary due to the mental state of the character, Inspector Ling, he was playing. In comparison the supporting actors in the movie was worst, especially Josie Ho

I believe the director, Hsien-yang Chou, has much to do with the down fall of this movie and not to mention the writing duo Chi-long To and Roy Chow Hin Yeung. They are all new to the movie industry expect for To. Not only is the dialogue and directions are bad, the special effects are also very unbelievable.

Unless you’re a fan of Kwok I suggest you give this a miss.

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: Knowing

Poster

My Rating: 4Stars

This afternoon I saw the movie Knowing at AMC Theater, Pacific Place, Admiralty, Hong Kong. Another one of the movies from my Must See Movies list.

After watching the poor performance of Dwayne Johnson in Race to Witch Mountain last week, I was glad to watch a seasoned actor, Nicolas Cage, delivering a great performance. Although Cage’s performance is only great when compared to Johnson, here Cage was playing his “Ben Gates” character from National Treasure.

The thing that earned this movie an extra penguin in my rating was the story and the twists in the plot. It did not have as complicated of a plot as National Treasure, but contains enough suspense for the audience to want more. Without breaking my rule of no spoilers, there is really not much more I can say about the movie.

I can leave you with the following detail, as with I Am Legend the ending of this movie is a bit unexpected.

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: Eagle Eye

Poster

My Rating: 4Stars

This evening I saw the movie Eagle Eye at AMC Theater, Pacific Place, Admiralty, Hong Kong.

Another highly anticipated movie from my Must See Movies list.

Another great movie with exciting special effects and spectacular stunts. The kind you expects from Die Hard franchise and more recently in Wanted. These recent movies has really raise the bar for all action movies to come.

The casting was almost perfect except for Michael Chiklis, which I just cannot rid him of his character, “Detective Vic Mackey” from The Shield. It is most likely the choice of the director, D.J. Caruso, who chose Chiklis for the Defense Secretary role.

The plot of this movie is not totally original, with The Terminator and WarGames both using the same theme. To avoid ruin the movie for my readers I will not review too much of the plot, which is reviewed half way into the movie.

Overall the dialogue is fairly weak particularly Chiklis’ character. The only memorable one was from Billy Bob Thornton where he turns to his team and say, “I hope you are all staring at me because I am the major suspect, if I don’t get some significant leads I will demote everyone of you to jobs that require direct contact of feces.”

If you enjoy action movies and a technology buff, this is definitely a movie not to miss.

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: The Kingdom (2007)

Poster

My Rating: 2Stars

This evening I saw the movie “The Kingdom” at JP Theater, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong.

Jamie Foxx was his usual self, playing the good guy he had in the past, with just a mediocre performance. The other members of the cast, Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman did not help either.

The story of the movie is quite straight forward with a simple lesson in the end. Although, this movie is on my “Must See” list, after seeing it myself, it can now be moved to my “Can Miss” list.

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