Box Office

Captain America defeated the Boy Who Lived...

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2011-07-24-captain-america_n.htm

Meanwhile, Harry and friends continues to make history...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/21/idUS146822109520110721

Box Office

Harry Potter defeated Batman and Jack Sparrow... and conquered the current box office, naturally...

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/Movies/07/17/boxoffice.ew/

Review - The Deathly Hallows II

The final movie is finally here. The kids practically grew up right in front of us. It's a bit of a bittersweet moment...

So... Part II of The Deathly Hallows starts when Voldermort got the Elder Wand from Dumbledore's grave. Harry Potter and his friends are still on the hunt for the horcruxes in order to destroy Voldermort's soul and vanquish him for good. One of the horcruxes was in Hogwarts. Soon as they return to Hogwarts, Voldermort and his entire Death Eater crew came a'knockin' and an all-out magical war begins between the forces of good and the forces of evil.

If you guys read the book like I did, you'd be psyched about this movie, especially about the Battle of Hogwarts where many characters died and many characters rose to the occasion.

Unfortunately, they made plenty of changes to the storylines... the Battle of Hogwarts was reduced to a tiny fragment of its initial awesomeness and most of the fights were changed. I understand from a filmmakers/scriptwriters POV to make it the way it was shown on film, coz it would mean that the main characters/main supporting characters get a chance to shine, rather than just let them be a part of a huge army. But that was how it was supposed to be...

I don't get how JK Rowling would've allowed this to happen. I mean, you spend a lot of time writing it and then to have it reduced to THAT... I would've thrown a tantrum... I did throw a tantrum once the movie was over...

But then again, that's just me. I did not even bother to read the rest of the books in the series but I did read The Deathly Hallows. And the Battle of Hogwarts was one of the most awesome battles ever! Yes, yes, I know it was kinda difficult to translate all that to film but they could have tried... some bits you could've left out but the really important ones (such as Bellatrix Lastrange and Voldermort's demises) should've been intact...

One thing I was glad they decided to not follow from the book was McGonagall's feistiness and also her battling Snape. Was awesome! Like Catwoman but with fire instead of a whip! You go girl! Hehe... am so glad she could finish the whole series... I love Maggie Smith... :)

Anyway, the acting was really good, as it always were. Special effects were also on point. The epilogue was touching... and it is a fitting end to an awesome series of books/movies. Harry, Hermione, Ron... we will miss you guys... *sobs*

Review - Sekali Lagi Pontianak

The title of this post seems to suggest that this is a review of some sort of Malay spoof movie... which it is not... it is a review of two movies as a result of last night's movie marathon at Pavilion.

This is quite a busy month for me, even though I still watch movies every week but my movie days are normally reserved for the high profile blockbusters of the summer and my friends definitely won't wanna watch Malay movies, especially these two... today I am going to see Harry Potter's final movie, so it was decided that I would watch Sekali Lagi at 6pm and then Tolong Awek Aku Pontianak at 9pm.

Sekali Lagi is a charming little movie starring three of the best working actors today, Lisa Surihani, Shaheizy Sam and Bront Palarae. It's about Arman (Shaheizy Sam), who is an adult but has the mind of a child. Autism. On his daily outings, he met Amy (Mia Sara Nasuha, who I suspect is Afdlin Shauki's daughter, but I could be wrong), and they hit it off really well, since they were about the same age mentally, but Amy is a bit more matured though.

Amy's mom, Shila (Lisa Surihani) is a single mother working in the city and is being helped by Bront Palarae's character, who is carrying a torch for her. Unfortunately, Shila was still badly scarred after being dumped by the love of her life and finding out she was pregnant with Amy at the same time.

The very first thing you see when the movie started is the labelling... this movie was said to be a romantic comedy... romantic comedy my ass... there was barely any laughing out loud scenes that would constitute a comedy... it is not even a dark comedy... it's actually a drama... a very emotional drama at that... I actually cried... haha... yup, nothing shameful in admitting it... lucky I was alone and there was barely anybody in the cinema...

Anyway, this is a very charming, emotional drama... and the storylines get peeled off one layer at a time... like an onion and each layer added quite a punch to the movie... and it's all tied up together pretty neatly... for a layman like me, I was pretty impressed with the level of storytelling here...

Acting-wise, this movie is rife with good actors... I am biased I admit but I love Lisa... she did a really good job here... so does Bront Palarae and Kartina Aziz... Shaheizy Sam is of course really good, hands down... the young actor in the movie is not bad as well, although there are times the dubbing failed her but mostly she did a good job, for someone that young...

Any movie that gets me crying is a good one...

After this movie, it's off to watch Tolong Awek Aku Pontianak... from director James Lee, who is increasingly becoming one of my favorite local directors. His first movie... or maybe the movie of his I saw was Histeria and it blew me away... Sini Ada Hantu was a good movie as well... so I was looking forward to seeing this one, even though the title really turned me off...

Tolong! Awek Aku Pontianak is about Bob who is a floormat/wallflower who just got dumped by his gold-digging girlfriend... he moves to a different house to have a fresh new start... and his neighbors are two girls who happens to be pontianaks... of course he falls for the older sister without knowing she is a supernatural entity...

But then Bob's boss tried stealing her from Bob and she revealed her true identity to him and he plots to save Bob from her, even though Bob is smitten with her... In a side plot, another supernatural entity is coming to KL because a bomoh type person is hot on her tail...

This movie is rife with pop culture reference... just about every single horror movie was referenced... from Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam to Zombi Kampung Pisang... although this movie is less funny than Sini Ada Hantu and less scary than Histeria...

Acting-wise, this movie is nice enough, even the cartoon-ish characters were handled well...

I've never been a Sazzy Falak fan but I enjoyed her performance in this movie. Liyana Jasmay supports nicely but she was rarely required to do anything much but pouts and stand around looking cute... Zahiril Adzim's second movie role (as far as I am concerned coz I've only seen him in one other movie, Senjakala) and he did a better job here. He played wallflower well with a bit of the charm and likeable aura thrown in.

The surprise for me in this movie is Nurul Wahab, the singer... she seemed natural at this... maybe I've missed her doing some movies, I don't know... but then again, she was not required to do much...

I do have one gripe though... the fight scenes were a bit wooden... would've loved seeing the pontianaks going at it with a showing of impressive powers or something... but you can totally see when they were fighting it was broad swipes at nothing...

Other than that, I had fun watching two good movies... I have read some reviews and my colleagues have told me stuff about both movies but I cleared my mind when watching... wanted to watch without prejudice or expectations... unfortunately, some stuff stuck to mind and I saw what they were talking about but with relatively low expectations, I watched both and thoroughly enjoyed the movies...

P/S - today is The Deathly Hallows Part 2 at Times Square *gurly shrieks*

Trailer - Deathly Hallow 2

Part 2...

Harry Potter

Three months to go... jeng jeng jeng... haha...

Anticipated

Upcoming movies that are hotly anticipated...

Thor (May 6)

Chris Hemsworth as Thor

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (May 20)

Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom won't be appearing in the fourth installment...
Penelope Cruz has been added to the cast...

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (July 1)

Megan Fox won't be running around in skimpy outfits anymore... Rose Huntington-Whiteley is her replacement and judging from the photo, they are not looking to make her into a sexpot... we'll see...


Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (July 15)


Cowboys & Aliens (July 29)

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 1

Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol (December 16)

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (December 21)

Bear in mind that these dates are US release dates... dunno when Malaysia is gonna get them... but if they are blockbuster movies, then we'd get em at the same time too...

Full story: http://blog.movies.yahoo.com/blog/358-the-most-anticipated-movies-of-2011

Best of 2010

I am a movie buff/freak... a buffy movie freak? or a freaky movie buff? hihi... anyways, I watch a lot of movies and I am one of those who like all kinds of movies and would normally enjoy all kinds of movie experiences, unless they are total and complete piece of crap *cough* 2Alam *cough*... so this is a list of the movies I enjoyed most and remembered and would likely to buy the DVD and watch it again and again...

So without further ado... the 10 best movies watched in the cinema in 2010...

Ryan Reynolds, who is normally linked to romance fluff and action movies, did a solid in this one. The movie itself was interesting in its premise and execution...

M Night Shyamalan's redemption after the god-awful The Last Airbender. Again, this movie employed the same claustraphobic element like Buried, but there are other things happening outside of the elevator. Very thrilling and kinda scary...

Two of the funniest actors on TV joining forces for a movie? Sounds great. And the end product was awesomely funny, like one of the episodes of 30 Rock. Tina Fey has always been a goddess to me. Don't like Steve Carell though...

By far, the best of the series, which is a good sign for Part 2 I guess. Story-wise, nothing much has changed, except this movie spends a lot of its time elsewhere ie not in Hogwarts, which I guess is the thrilling part of the movie. The kids are all grown up but they're still kids...

It made you think... and it was utterly original... unlike the sequels, prequels, remakes and revamps that inundated us, especially in the summer... the all-star cast helped...

Some people might be turned off by this movie but I found it to be awesome! Especially Chloe Grace Moretz in a career-defining role as the foul-mouthed kick-ass girl...

Another Chloe Moretz movie... this remake was indeed prettier but it was a bit more solemn and dark too... very nice scares plus the cute romance between the kids...


Will Ferrell normally irritates me and Mark Wahlberg tends to do some overacting, especially after he got his Oscar nomination... what's up with that? Anyway, this movie worked well... funny at times and cute... did I mention funny?


Finally, a movie based on true events that happened in our generation! The Social Network is not just a fluff piece about how Facebook came about. It's very real and human and a good piece of dramatic cinema. Gave us great performances, especially from Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield.

Another Leo DiCaprio movie. This time he reteams with Martin Scorsese and produced another gem. All-star cast too. Quite nice, the mystery and the drama.

Box Office

The Disney Princess with the long golden hair finally stomped The Boy Who Lived...

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-box-office-20101206,0,5261379.story

Box Office

A certain Disney Princess is giving The Boy Who Lived a run for his money...


http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2010-11-29-boxoffice29_ST_N.htm

Box Office

Not a surprise that the penultimate Harry Potter movie dominated the box office eh?

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1652782/20101122/story.jhtml