Movie Review: Forrest Gump

You know, this might be the first movie I’ve seen that has no trouble saying “run away” when things get out of hand. This is what Forrest Gump does for a large portion of the movie, yet in what may be the most ironic turn of events, he accomplishes great things running away. What I love about Gump is that the film doesn’t ever equate saving your own hide as being cowardly.

As for it being one of IMDB.com’s Top #250 films, I’m convinced it deserves the spot. The hype? Not so much. That’s to say Forrest Gump is a movie that could do without critics ranting about how great it is. It’s not a movie that needs to be punished because everyone else had high expectations after hearing the hype. Forrest Gump isn’t as wonderful as everyone makes it out to be – it isn’t great enough to wow those with raised expectations.

Why Tom Hanks wasn’t the first choice for Gump remains a mystery to me, because it is his simplistic yet intricate delivery that brings the movie to an impossible emotional level. Not that he does it directly to your face, pleading with you to sympathise with him, but rather ever so lightly, tickling but never forcibly tugging on your heartstrings. Having given Hanks a personal award for “only actor to carry off a role opposite a volleyball”, I therefore had certain expectations of the acting, and this one passed with flying colours. It’s Hank’s who’s the gem, the movie his tool.

8 Movies for Father’s Day

Father’s Day is around the corner, and… well, there are many different kinds of dads out there. To assume that every one of them enjoy sitting down to stuff like The Pursuit Of Happyness is downright bias, because “dad” doesn’t define age groups. Any guy between puberty and death has potential to be a father, and that’s a huge spectrum to take into account.

Below is a list of eight movies to choose from that we hope would cover this large demographic, and they’ve been chosen based on three things: 1. they’re actually decent, 2. they all have the highest censorship rating of M18, meaning you won’t have that big a problem watching it with the dad, and 3. they cover a good range of genres.

The Pursuit Of Happyness (PG)
Biography, Drama
An obligatory entry, this. A bit too honeyed up for this writer, and never quite meets its potential. Sorry folks, Will Smith and Jaden Smith may make a sweet father-son pair, but they don’t make nearly as interesting a movie. Recommended only if you’ve seen everything else on this list.

Finding Nemo (G)
Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Family
Because like anything that has to do with Disney, this one features a lead character with a dead/missing/non-existing mom. Sorry man, it’s Father’s Day we’re celebrating. Other than that: what rock have you been living under not to have heard the hype about this six years ago?

Outlander (M18 for Violence and Some Gore, but they’re just exaggerating)
Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Fathering a kid may change a guy’s perspective and all that, but heeeeey, it’s a monster movie! That isn’t Godzilla! Outlander has a good story going on, and despite its low budget, isn’t a complete basket case visually. The CGI is decent, and the monster looks terrifying enough. It even glows in the dark! Oh, and it kills a bunch of people. Highly recommended for those with a taste for action and good old monster hunting, especially so when free-to-air TV has more or less broadcasted every other monster flick there is to broadcast. PG monster movies are silly, so why not rent an M18 one for the kick?

War Of The Worlds (PG)
Action, Adventure, Sci-fi, Thriller
Now, if you have a dad who’s fond of classics, we don’t actually recommend this. If you have a dad who loves Sci-Fi and alien invasion-type films, then hell yes! This one’s pretty badass and haunting, and frankly it’s surprising to see it under the PG tag. It can leave you a little psychologically scarred if you’re below the age of fourteen, so don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Fido (NC16 for Some Gory Scenes)
Comedy, Drama, Horror, Romance
Got a dad who likes the unconventional? Fido’s about taming zombies, and there are not a lot of movies that feature tamed zombies doing household chores. It’s a breath of fresh air, and it’s funny too. Lots of fake blood and effects, but seeing how half of it doesn’t look painfully real, there’s nothing to fear.

Ip Man (PG for Fighting Scenes. Thanks for stating the obvious.)
Action, Biography, Drama, History
It’s a kung-fu movie. Actually it’s Wing Chun, but that isn’t the point. The point is, there’s fighting! Dudes love fighting, right? Useful if you’ve run out of Jackie Chan movies.

King Kong (PG for Some Intense Sequences)
Adventure, Romance
It’s Peter Jackson’s version we’re talking here. Which means you can treat your dad to an updated version of Kong where he isn’t a toy climbing up a five inch skyscraper model.

[Rec] (NC16 for Some Gore and Coarse Language)
Drama, Horror, Thriller
Our wild card: he may love you or hate you for this. It’s scary, and then it’s good. Word of warning: it’s in Spanish. Sure, get the U.S English remake Quarrantine if you must, but it just isn’t as crazy as the original. You may want to empty your bladder and grab a few pillows first, though.

Movie Review: Space Buddies

This… is a cheesy, simple, brainless, cute movie for kids, and I should really end the review here. There are heaps of better family/kids-orientated movies, and this one hangs around somewhere near the bottom of the barrel.

A bunch of dogs are accidentally launched into space, but they’ve dumbed the thing down to include dogs that talk, and immature villains that want the space mission to screw up out of spite. There are lessons to be learnt about friendship, loyalty, kindness and teamwork etc., though despite this the movie is a shallow and fairytale-ish representation of such values. I tend to feel a little insulted by the movie if this is what they think kids might enjoy, because the level of quality for both animation and content simply isn’t there… an inevitable flaw I’d like to attribute to the budget, or a lack thereof. The villain also has an extremely silly Chinese sidekick (slave?), which may lead to potential racist behaviour in young children, or something. “Harmless” kid movie? I don’t think so!

Watch a cartoon instead.

(First published at InCinemas)

Movie Review: The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3

It’s nice to see you back in macho roles, John Travolta! For the first fifteen minutes of the film I had trouble associating your face with the gun-wielding thug about to hijack a subway carriage – now whenever I think “John Travolta” I remember you as either a cute American White Shepherd, or someone dressed in drag! If an emoticon didn’t look so inappropriate here I would have put one right now after this paragraph.

I admit though, when I saw the trailer for The Taking Of Pelham 123, I felt a bit disappointed… no, not disappointed, unwilling to fork out the money to see it. Since it was a free screening, I figured I had nothing to lose except two hours of my life, which was okay considering I was getting paid to do it. I had extremely low expectations for this – you can blame that on the mundane trailer – and thought that this would be a typical Hollywood action thriller. Come on, it did look like one… you all had guns and silly car crashes, and they’re nothing new to the industry, right?

I’m glad I went. Now I’m vaguely aware that this is a remake, but I don’t care for this detail because I’ve never seen the original nor am I a person to oppose remakes just because they’re remakes. Neither am I familiar with Tony Scott films. There is a lot I don’t know about the movie, and I think this was what made it enjoyable. The film was a smarter-than-average Hollywood action thriller, and reminded me of movies like Collateral and Phone Booth, which I must say I enjoyed. But what made Pelham 123 better weren’t the villian-hero mind games as much as the subtly mocking and exaggerated quirky script, great chemistry between the leads, and the fact that it didn’t seem to take itself seriously. It seemed to be mocking New York’s inadequate authorities! On the chopping block were the police force, the hostage negotiation people, and… the Mayor! Maybe it was the mood I was in, because I found many, many scenes that were ridiculously funny that not too many people in the audience caught or laughed at. Maybe they didn’t know what to make of the film. It isn’t a comedy, yet had great comedic timing, it’s a thriller with a bit of suspense, and has enough action without going to Michael Bay extremes.

Pelham 123 is a taut film although it began on a low note with some stylish editing I didn’t care for. Whether it was on purpose so viewers would underestimate it I guess we’ll never know. I can’t say how much I enjoyed watching Travolta acting the hell out of his role, and how Denzel Washington sealed the deal as the not-very-clean hero. It was a bit like watching the Joker and Batman, without the superhero comic background and the feeling like someone was beating your head in with a moral education book.

(First published at InCinemas)

Movie Review: Unstable Fables: Tortoise Vs Hare

This is the second of two Unstable Fables movies I’ve seen, and as per the first (3 Pigs & A Baby), Tortoise Vs Hare is an “alternate” ending to the bedtime story we’re familiar with. The phrase “slow and steady” has now become the town’s motto, and Walter Tortoise (Danny Glover), who won the race, has become a household celebrity. Murray Hare, voiced by Jay Leno, is jealous of the winner’s limelight, and when an opportunity to race comes again, he convinces his daughter to race as a team, against the tortoise and his son, and some other teams that we won’t be seeing much. The kids are not happy, because Murray’s daughter loves dancing, and Walter’s son is a Science nerd. They hate races! Things happen during the extremely long and dangerous “wilderness” race, and the two teams have to join forces to solve their problems and prove some other moral . 

For a cheap production aimed at kids, the filmmakers have given the script and animation some decent thought and effort. Sure, it’s an easy story that conveniently resolves its own problems, but that’s a characteristic passed on from the original story… which was also relatively simple and convenient, if you think about it. Remember, things happen to illustrate a point at the end of the day. The entire process could’ve been funnier, but I get that they want to be serious about what they’re preaching about at the same time. It’s sincere and heartfelt, if sincere and heartfelt are allowed to be shallow.

(First published at InCinemas)

Movie Review: Home

Home might be one of few movies you can watch on YouTube without the risk of landing yourself a fine/jail term. It’s a non-profit movie released worldwide on the UN-appointed World Environment Day (5 June every year) so audiences can soak in its urgent environmental message free-of-charge. It is also perhaps due to its non-profit nature that Home lacks severely in effort and expertise, documentary-wise. As interesting as a screen saver with an uninspired script and preachy, emotionless narration (by Glenn Close, who voices Mona Simpson, no less!), Home comes across self-righteous, chastising the human race for being a thorn in Mother Nature’s side. The latter may be the case, but let’s just say no one really responds well to a talking-down – a lecture that could so easily be turned into something informative and interesting in the hands of someone like David Attenborough.

Where appropriate, the movie also slides by on vague details, bordering on being incomplete, or just outright inaccurate. It paints carbon dioxide like a villain, and global warming like a crisis, when really, global warming is a natural occurrence that humans are speeding up due to their excessive usage of Earth’s depleting resources. 

Consider the following sentences, “The system that controls our climate has been severely disrupted. The elements on which it relies have been disrupted.” That’s two ‘disrupted’s used consecutively! That’s not the only flaw with the horridly uninspired script – figures and theories fly off the voiceover so often, it’s completely fine to listen to the commentary without watching the film (which did I mention, was very screen saver-like). The video doesn’t tell the story – the voiceover does. I guess this is no surprise coming from a writer and a director who have no other writing and directing experience respectively – it simply isn’t sincere for something we’re supposed to take seriously. Sure, the visuals are good even when majority of them have been filmed from helicopters (Home has one of the most bird-eye-view shots in any movie), but the way it’s been put together feels like someone just stuck a pin in a balloon.

Despite its good intentions, Home also has a tendency to point fingers. Yes, we humans have contributed to global warming with our careless attitude and intensive industrialisation/deforestation. Yes, we’ve wiped out hundreds of plant species in exchange for single-species plantations. WE GET IT, NOW MOVE ON. And for God’s sake don’t start every sentence with “We humans have…” WE KNOW we’re the problem, and that’s why you’re making this film to slap at our ignorance, okay?

Another major gripe I had with the “documentary” were the unrelatable figures used to quantify some point or another. Thirteen hundred acres of land means nothing to an average person; why not put it across visually, say, “equivalent to six football fields”, etc? Why not turn an impersonal digit, another meaningless number, to something visually relatable? 

All of the movie’s flaws may fly over the heads of an average moviegoer, but it’s entirely unconvincing and uninvolving to those who’re frequent viewers of nature/wildlife documentaries (me). Environmental propaganda may be well-meaning, but Home makes it a priority to be ineffective in provoking a reaction.

(First published at InCinemas)