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Movie Reviews
Whiteout Movie Review
Oct 15th
Have you watched Whiteout yet? I managed to catch the premiere screening of Whiteout last Tuesday all thanks to Nuffnang.
For U.S. Marshal Carrie Stetko, things are about to get even more dangerous. The only law enforcement in this unforgiving territory, she has just been sent to investigate a body on the ice. Antarctica’s first homicide. A shocking discovery in itself, it will plunge her into an even more bizarre mystery and the revelation of secrets long-buried under the endless ice…secrets that someone believes are still worth killing for.
As Stetko races to find the killer before he finds her, winter is already closing in. In the deadly Antarctic whiteout, she won’t see him till he’s a breath away. Will Stetko kill him or will it be the opposite? That’s of course for you to find out!
Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Dark Castle Entertainment, a Dominic Sena Film: the action thriller “Whiteout,” starring Kate Beckinsale (“Underworld”), Gabriel Macht (“The Spirit”), Columbus Short (“Stomp the Yard”) and Tom Skerritt (“Contact”). The film is directed by Dominic Sena (“Swordfish”) from a screenplay by Jon Hoeber & Erich Hoeber and Chad Hayes & Carey W. Hayes, based on the graphic novel by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber and published by Oni Press.
“Whiteout” is produced by Joel Silver, Susan Downey and David Gambino. Executive producers are Steve Richards, Don Carmody and Greg Rucka. Co-producers are Richard Mirisch and Adam Kuhn. The creative team includes director of photography Chris Soos, supervising editor Stuart Baird, film editor Martin Hunter and production designer Graham “Grace” Walker. The costume designers are Wendy Partridge and Nicoletta Massone. Music is by John Frizzell.
First of all I consider this movie as an action-packed movie and the camera can get shaky at times due to the action moves. I had strained eyes and neck as a result of obtaining a front row passes, I would want front row passes to concerts but definitely not in the cinemas. Fans of action movies will definitely have to catch this movie but if you’re not so keen on action movies, I’ll suggest you turn to another movie instead. In short, the movie was not too bad as it is just another action movie without a strong storyline. 
Surrogates Movie Review
Sep 30th
Surrogates, a sci-fi thriller movie directed by Jonathan Mostow who previously directed the hit movie Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Before I move on to the review, I would like to express my biggest gratitude to Nuffnang for giving a pair of premiere screening passes to me. Without the passes, this review would not have been written.
FBI agents (BRUCE WILLIS and RADHA MITCHELL) investigate the mysterious murder of a college student linked to the man who helped create a high-tech surrogate phenomenon that allows people to purchase unflawed robotic versions of themselves – fit, good looking remotely controlled machines that ultimately assume their life roles – enabling people to experience life vicariously from the comfort and safety of their own homes. The murder spawns a quest for answers: in a world of masks, who’s real and who can you trust?
I must say that this movie made me think if the world would be like how it is in this movie, what would humans be then? Somehow, this is really similar to the movie Gamer in terms of the idea behind humans controlling others; humans control humans in Gamer while humans control a robot in Surrogates. In layman terms, the brain is powerful enough to fully control a robot to do replace a human. The human just stays at home controlling his or her own robot and so, robots are everywhere outside the house down the street.
I don’t think there’s any complicated storyline here as the movie is purely about investigating the murder of surrogates’ creator’s son. I would consider this as an action-packed movie as I see more actions than anything else. I liked the ending of this movie in which there’s a choice to save surrogates or to end it, what do you think was done? I’ll leave that for you to keep guessing and find out when you watch the movie. Verdict, nothing to shout about but still a good movie.
Murderer Movie Review
Aug 26th
Last night, I together with my dearest attended the premiere screening of the latest Hong Kong movie, Murderer. It was held at e@Curve in Cathay Cineplex courtesy of Nuffnang. I won a pair of the premiere pass from a slogan competition held by them about a month ago.
Do excuse the torn pass as I had to retake a photo of this with another camera as I couldn’t transfer the picture of the passes in good condition due to my handphone’s bluetooth problem. Collected the pass at about 8.30pm from the collection counter and went in to hall 9 at 9.30pm.
Murderer, as the title already mentioned it, you’ll have a rough idea of what the movie is all about, murder! Asian top singer-actor Aaron Kwok plays an upright policeman who suddenly becomes a murder suspect; with emerging Taiwan actress Ning Chang as his loving, anguished but helpless wife.
Aaron Kwok plays the role of Ling Kwong, a 40 year old, self-assured Chief Inspector of Police. He solved numerous difficult cases on his own, has a flawless track record, and is soon to be promoted to Superintendent of Police. Everyone sees him as the future head of the Hong Kong Police Force. Ling has a perfect family having a beautiful, gentle wife, a charming son and a posh lifestyle. In every sense, he is as enviable as he is successful.
His perfect life takes an abrupt turn when he wakes up after fainting in a building, on one of his operations. He wakes to discover his short term memory damaged, and is more shocked to find his best colleague killed in the same building with a lot of holes all over his body, mercilessly blood-let by an electric hand drill! Yes this can be disturbing to watch as it is horrifying especially with his bones all breaking and the amount of blood you’ll see.
Ling’s colleague is the third victim of this series of “bloodletting murders”. Using the most inhuman means, this serial killer makes each victim witness his own slow death, in supreme terror and unimaginable pain! The extreme cruelty of the murders appalls even the most experienced policemen, and after each killing, the murderer simply disappears and leaves no trace at all to the clueless police.
At the height of his life, Ling encounters this most vicious murder throughout Hong Kong’s crime history. He must catch the killer at all costs and to avenge his friend’s death. However, as Ling go through the clues of the murders, he finds that all the evidences are pointing to himself as the murderer! The more he unveils the truth, the more suspicious he becomes.
All this time, Ling’s short term memory continues to desert him. He is losing the last trustworthy evidence which is himself. Ling is being pushed to the edge of madness! Is he really the murderer after all?
If I were to give ratings to this movie, I’d give a an 8/10 as an overall. This movie really had me guessing all the way on what’s next as there could be a lot of possibilities leading to the next scene. Isn’t it great if there’s a movie that isn’t 100% predictable and you’ll have your typical storyline? However, towards the ending, I have to say that I really did not expect it to be that way at all and I would rather see another character used for the murderer. The reason for it, well.. I can’t be saying it as it will reveal the murderer’s identity so I would leave it to you to catch this movie and find out who the real murderer is! Murderer opens on 27th of August 2009 which is tomorrow so don’t miss it!
The Proposal Movie Review
Jul 30th
The Proposal was officially released on the screens here in Malaysia today. This is a romance comedy movie starring Ryan Reynolds (Andrew Paxton) and Sandra Bullock (Margaret Tate). The length of this movie is approximately 1 hour 40 minutes. What made it interesting to watch is that the storyline happens in reality too in which Margaret Tate forces Andrew Paxton to get married with her to save her job.
It all begins when Margaret Tate who is a Canadian working as an an executive editor-in-chief in a book publishing company called Colden Books, got her Visa status rejected and she had to go back to Canada as she cannot work for an American company without a valid Visa. The only proper solution to this is that she had to give up her position to someone else for a year as she stays in Canada reapplying for a Visa. She thought of a shortcut to this problem which she forced her assistant Andrew Paxton to marry her to avoid being deported back to Canada as well as giving up her position to someone else. Andrew accepted this solution with a condition that Margaret must give him a promotion to an editor.
The both of them went to the immigration department and was told that they will be investigated. In order to make everything seemed real, Andrew and Margaret went back to Andrew’s place back in Alaska to spend the weekend with his parents. As they spend more time together, the both of them fell in love with each other. As a result of this, Margaret announced the real situation to everyone during the ceremony that this marriage was made up in order for her to avoid being deported.
With the conflicts, what will happen between Andrew and Margaret? How will they be able to handle the conflicts and pressure? I basically like the idea of this story because as I mentioned earlier, it happens in reality. Fake marriages happens everywhere and everyday. I find this movie to be entertaining as it mixes romance with comedy so it didn’t turn out to be dry throughout the entire movie. I would recommend this to those who love watching romance movies with a little bit of laughter. For the rest especially those who love action-packed movies, you might want to look at other movies instead.
