The King's Speech

Ratings: 8.0/10
Film Class: B
Genre: Drama

I was pleasantly surprised with the way the movie turned out. I hadn't read the sypnosis, nor was I ever a fan of movies of such times... but this movie proved to be educationally beautiful. Based solely on the title, this movie is definitely about the King's speech, more specifically, King George the VI's speech. I shan't disclose what the movie is about, because I'm positively sure you'll welcome the surprise like I did.

The opening sequence stunned me... for it featured Colin Firth (the male protagonist) walking up to do a speech on the King's behalf. I was thinking to myself, wow... that's fast... how was the story supposed to proceed from there? After that scene, though predictable, it still brought out not just the performances of the fantastic cast, but also the struggles of the highly unheard-of King of our time... I only heard of Hitler, Stalin and Winston Churchill... but King George the VI? Welcome to a moving history lesson on Britain during World War II.

Cinematography was brillant, cast and script were aptly outstanding and story development was engaging. Despite it being a dialogue driven movie, there's a very high chance it won't put to sleep a typically exhausted working adult. Might not work for the kids though.

The Fighter

Ratings: 7.5/10

Film Class: B

Genre: Drama

Melancholy drama about the early years of boxing champ Micky Ward and how his life was greatly influenced by his family and his girlfriend back then. The movie revolves around his internal and external struggles to pursue his dream and patch up his broken life.

Kudos to Christian Bale to perhaps one of his best performances in his acting career. Christian Bale stars as Dicky Eldund, Micky Ward's (Mark Wahlberg) brother who is both a degenerated boxing legend and loving brother. Mark Wahlberg did a decent job in building his body up and delivering a decent performance while Amy Adams was the true black horse. Her most memorable performance was her role as the fairytale-like princess in Enchanted. She took on a more serious role as a nun in Doubt and she has once again showed to the world how versatile an actress she is.

Both Christian Bale and Amy Adams stole the limelight, but the main focus was still kept on Mark Wahlberg, which I thought was what made this movie as exceptional as it was. However, I'm generally not fond of boxing movies (Rocky Balboa didn't make it for me) nor melancholy dramas. I prefer thought-provoking movies and not so much about movies of redemption. Therefore, my ratings for this movie are entirely subjective.

A great movie but somehow, it wasn't able to pull me in. But of all the boxing movies I've watched, this ranks as one of the top 2, on par with Million Dollar Baby. Ending wasn't exaggerated, the realism was kept but the heightened climax was compromised and after sitting through a close-to-2-hr-long movie, I only wanted it to end with an unforgettable punch, but it didn't. Forgettable movie, with unforgettable performances.

Megamind

Ratings: 7.7/10

Film Class: B

Genre: Animation

The rivalry between superhero Metro Man and supervillian Megamind reaches an abrupt end when Megamind finally defeats Metro Man... only to find his life meaningless during his conquest of Metro city. Therefore, he must use his ultra intelligent brain to create new meaning in his life.

The movie turned out better than expected... because I've already obstinately decided that no animation featuring the supervillian as the protagonist could match Despicable Me. Well, this movie didn't, but it did deliver many genuine laughs with its witty scripts and it definitely made my day. The storyline isn't that unpredictable, but the jokes were of a different genre compared to your typical animations. I would term this movie more of an "adult" animation cos of the matured-like witty humor (no, not those kinda uncensored xxx jokes but more of those which adults would appreciate more... somewhat similar to Spongebob SquarePants movie).

This animation has earned its spot into my top ten list of animations of all time. Do yourself a favor and catch it if you missed it intentionally like I did because despite its similarities, no two movies are identical.