Flash Point Review

I had never been a huge fan of Donnie Yen honest. I always deem him as an inferior martial arts actor compared to the likes of Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, Yuen Wah and Jet Li whom I had grow up watching and idolizing. I never really liked him, not even in the excellent Wilson Yip directed SPL (a.k.a Sha Po Lang) in which IMHO is great because of Simon Yam, Sammo Hung and the then-HK-movie-industry-rookie Wu Jing in which he plays a cold blooded silent assasin for the triads which will even make Luca Brasi feels like a n00b.

Then came Dragon Tiger Gate, a flick which the trailers feels much more cooler than the movie itself. True, I must admit that the movie's redeeming point is none other but Donnie Yen himself but his GODMODE-ON in nearly all his scenes is a huge turnoff for me.

Fortunately for me, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and decided to catch his latest flick which is currently showing in the cinemas now called Flash Point. Ok to be honest, its not really that benefit-of-the-doubt bullshit that got me buying tickets for this flick. Its the trailer of this movie that got me excited about this movie. Because in the trailer, there is zero dialogue, zero cliched-plot-revealing-flashing-words-on-the-screen and is very straight to the point by telling you this is a martial arts flick because all you ever see in the trailer other than the movies title are kicks, punches, armbars and a beautiful executed german suplex. And being the huge sucker for martial arts movie I did not seem to care about the lessons I learnt from Dragon Tiger Gate and just rush to get the tickets to the movie as soon as I have the free time to watch it once it is released.

Ok so now, on with the movie's review. Ok here's a brief synopsis of the plot. Donnie Yen plays a no-nonsense cop, just cop who is ruthless when it comes to catching criminals (which in other words is a 100% total opposite of Malaysian cops) and is trying hard to catch a band of villainous ruthless Vietnamese brothers. While Louis Khoo plays the undercover cop as the lackey of these villains. Well if you ask me, the plot is nothing but a build up to a huge one on one brawl towards the climax. The movie started at a slow pace for the first 45 minutes to 1 hour with time given for "plot development". After that it is a non-stop martial arts fest which is perhaps the most realistic looking fight choreography that I had ever seen in a movie. Instead of using traditional kicks and punches that is used in most martial arts movies, Flashpoint uses MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) which is much more rawer, intense and realistic.

In most martial arts film when guy A kick guy B to the floor, guy B will bounced back up almost immediately or guy A gives him enough time to do so. But not Flashpoint. A strike that takes down the opponent is usually followed up by more punches, kicks or even submission holds such as the deadly armbar. In other words the fight scenes is done very nicely in a very smooth uninterrupted flow of punches, kicks, throws and locks which I had never seen before in any martial arts flick and all these are directed by Donnie Yen himself.

Well despite its flawless fight scenes I do have a few major complaints about this movie though. Donnie Yen and Louis Khoo just doesn't have on screen chemistry. Both of them don't seem to "connect" with each other at all. Also Fan Bing Bing in the movie serves no purpose other than being a very sweet eyecandy. Not that I mind or anything, but she's being cast into the wrong role IMHO.

Overall Flashpoint is a must watch martial arts movie for all fans of this genre. I give it an 8 out of 10 stars.

P.S: To those who have no idea what MMA is, try searching for it on Youtube.

Transformers Review

Despite Transformers being perhaps the coolest movie event this year, which is mainly due to its great CGI effects, Michael Bay still deserves to be shot... maybe not as much as he should before.

Alright to be honest I have totally no expectations of this movie at all. Mainly its because it is directed by Michael Bay. Not that I really hate that man or anything but once you seen one of his movies you had seen it all. The way he does thing is similar, be it Armageddon or Bad Boys or even that dreaded crap called Pearl Harbour. Another reason is Megatron's new design. While others like Prime, Bumblebee, Barricade and Starscream is redesigned into a much cooler version of their cartoon-self, Megatron is a hundred steps backwards. Don't get me wrong, the Alien Jet movie version is fitting and cool but his Robot design is..... crap.

Ok enough about my expectations, here's my RM0.02 about the movie. Ok despite all the Michael Bay cliched camera works, badly done pacing and extensive use of explosions (well at least his over-explosions are very well done here), the movie is actually good but unfortunately, it had nothing to do with Bay. The only reason why this movie is so freaking cool is because of the robots themselves. How they were animated in so much detail like how Prime turn his face plate off while talking and turn it on while fighting. Their transformation sequence are also animated in great detail that had me drooling all over the place.

The voice acting is perhaps the best of them all. The voice acting is so good that even those cheesy cartoonish lines sounded perfectly. I mean with Peter Cullen reprising his role as Prime surely can never go wrong right? But what really surprises me is Megatron. I never expect Hugo Weaving a.k.a Agent Smith a.k.a Elrond to voiced Megatron so flawlessly and of course "badass-ly". And of course comparing Hugo Weaving with Peter Cullen is kinda unfair since one is Optimus Prime himself while the other is just a voice actor :P

The one thing that makes this movie far from perfect is that Bay tend to focus more on the soap opera that revolves around the humans rather than the robots and also the very anti-climatic ending which would leave you "WTF? Is that all?" after the end.

Overall this is a must watch movie. Despite the anti-climatic ending and the very Bay-ish cliched cameraworks and pacing, the robots itself is worth the price of the tickets ^_^.

Overall Score: 8 over 10.

P.S: Bay is still a bad director ^_^ and if you still haven't seen the Transformers Animated Movie (or do not even know of its existence) do go watch it.

Spiderman 3 Review

As everyone who had watched the previous two Spiderman movies know, the Green Goblin story arc is still not completed and before part 2 ends, we were shown how Harry Osbourne found out that his best friend is his Spiderman and also how he found his daddy's secret "Goblin" room where he kept all his Green Goblin stuffs there and how they hint that Harry is going to be the next Goblin. So this movie is basically the climax and the end of the Goblin story-arc with a couple of villians and themes thrown in.

The movie opens with a brief introduction of all the movies heroes and villians. Something like how the Sandman escaped from prison and how he is forced to be a criminal under some circumstances and how Peter want to propose to his girlfriend Mary Jane Watson. We are also shown how strain both Harry's and Peter's relationship had become and how Harry had indeed became the Goblin and wanted to take revenge on his pal Peter Parker for "killing" his dad and how the Symbiote (those things that gave Spidey the black costume) came down to earth from a meteorite. After a brief introduction of the characters the movie wasted no time and jump straight into one of the best action sequence I had ever seen between Spidey and the Green Goblin. The effects are breathtaking and the action are greatly choreograph.

The character development in the movie is excellent. How they build up the relationships between the characters and also I expect the director can build up the hatred Eddy Brock had towards Peter Parker in such a short time. The comedic timing of the movie also well done, with most of the comedy relief coming from Jonah Jameson which is portrayed excellently by J.K Simmons. Do look out for Bruce Campbell's cameo in the movie as the French restaurant manager which is really hilarious.

My only disappointment for this movie is how they do not have much time to develop the coolest and greatest villain in Spidey's rogue gallery which is Venom. He is simply given to little time to develop. True the hatred between Parker and Brock is there but the chemistry between Venom and Spidey is just not there. Instead of be given a whole new story arc just to himself, he is been relegated to just a supporting villain. Hope they can bring in Venom for the next story-arc. That would indeed kick so much ass.

Overall this is a great movie and also a great curtain closer to the Green Goblin story-arc. Despite the minor "Venom" disappointments, I really love this movie. I give it a 9.2 out of 10.

Some afterthoughts: After being teased several times of being the next-possible villain, could the next story-arc revolves around Doctor Connors (Peter's lecturer) and his transformation to the Lizard? Or could the next arc be a symbiote extravaganza featuring Carnage and Venom? After all Sony did sign a 6 movies deal with Marvel and I don't think they would want to stop at movie number 3 judging how the Spiderman movies is their biggest cashcow.

Mr. Bean's Holiday (Review)

Wow, yet another movie this year that surprises me. To be honest I thought this new Mr. Bean flick is going to suck like the previous one which broke all the "tradition" what Bean is known for, almost zero dialogue and tons of slapstick fun. So honestly, I had zero to none expectations for this movie at all and boy, I am glad that I am dead wrong.

Well the movie is about Mr. Bean winning a holiday trip (along with a video camera) to Cannes (you know the small town in France known for its annual Film Festival?). Well as you can expect from Bean himself, he got into a hell lot of trouble during his trip there.

This movie had brought back the "tradition" and spirit of Mr. Bean, the one that we had grown up loving. There is almost no dialogue, even if there is it is not really that important as most of the laughs is generated through Bean's hilarious antics. The movie played out something like Monty Python and the Holy Grail where it is a story being made up by many comedy skits minus the Python's trademark surrealism and the play of the English language that is. Think of it as your typical Mr. Bean series but it is all added up to tell a tale of Bean's misadventures, which packs a lot of laughs and there are some "skits" where I found myself my tears almost roll down my cheeks because of laughter.

If you had been a fan of Mr. Bean and had been growing up watching his silly antics I strongly recommend you to watch it. For those who had never even seen a single Bean episode first ask yourself "Where had you been?" and go watch the movie. It's never too late to be a Bean fan ^_^

Overall score: 8.5 over 10

300 (Review)

Just watched the movie and there's only one word to describe this swords-and-sandals masterpiece: BEAUTIFUL.

Set in 480BC and is loosely based on Battle of Thermopylae where King Leonidas led a group of 300 men to defend their lands from the incoming (estimated) 1 million-men Persian horde led by the megalomaniac Xerxes, the ruler of 100 nations a.k.a the King of Persia.

Plot-wise it is pretty straightforward but that's what makes this film amazing in the first place. A simple plot with lots of details been taken to the characters and a whole lot more is given to the visuals. Every single frame of the movie (not counting the opening credits) is a work of art. The movie is presented in a lack-of-colour comic book style that it is like watching a comic book coming to live.

The action scenes are amazingly detailed and it is perhaps the most accurate depiction of the violence of war during ancient times than any other movie I had watched. Slow motions are applied so frequently and with beautiful timing in action sequences that pulls me right into it. Every single thrust of a Spartan's spear into Persian flesh is depicted in extreme detail and every single action scene choreograph beautifully that it is as if you are watching a very beautiful dance rather than watching half-naked man in underwear slaughtering overdressed barbarians.

This is definitely going to be one of my Film of the Year candidate for this year. Only one complain though. Why is ultra violence deemed ok by the Censorship Board (most of it, if not all is not cut at all) while artistically done sex scenes are not? Weird double standards there....

P.S: Now if only Zack Snyder can direct the upcoming Warcraft movie.... hmmmm....