The Internship

Ratings: 7.4/10

Film Class: B

Genre: Comedy

This made my day, or night. 2 outstanding salesmen settle for an internship at Google after their company shuts down. Good at what they do, but not tech savvy, they must compete with a bunch of smart asses to land them a job. Dislike factor; Owen Wilson: 8/10, Vince Vaughn 7/10. However, putting both of them together, they make an awesome duo. They were pretty good in Wedding Crashers, but somehow their chemistry has evolved to new heights in this movie.

Entertaining, heart-warming and hiliariously crude at times. These 2 guys have no holds barred, yet they still managed to allow the plot to be the main focus. Usually with folks like them (eg. Hangover), all the focus are on the cast, not the story.

Had a short tour in Google Headquarters thanks to the movie and while I'm not sure how true the culture is over there, I sure was impressed with the famously cultivating working environment of Google. I had the thinking that all Google staff are supposed to think out of the box, but in actuality, the so-called "tests" that the interns had to go through was more on building teamwork, being resourceful and expressing humble determination - credible skills and mindset needed of their staff... not some overly fanciful out of the box solutions to everyday realistic problems.

The internship offers more than the simplicity of its poster, it illustrates the limitations of modern day technology, valuable skills needed that is often overlooked in this new millennium and that the "overgrown underdogs" have more to offer in life in this techno-savy present than the modern day geniuses - life lessons that only the "outdated" past can teach.

About Time

Ratings: 6.0/10

Film class: B 

Genre: Sci-Fi Drama

On his 21st birthday, Tim's dad broke the news to him that the guys in his family line has the ability to travel through time. All they have to do is simply to find a dark corner, clench their fist, close their eyes and think back to a point in their life that they want to go back to... Easy peasy. They can't travel to the future, and are able to only travel to a point in their lives. They will then take over themselves at that point in time, and relive that moment all over again, with little impact on the future.

While the time travelling concept is nothing new, the effort needed to actually do it was too incredibly easy, however also causing the credibilty to suffer. Major repercussions such as the butterfly effect were conveniently brushed aside with a simple explanatory matter-of-fact line. *major spoilers ahead* The underlying morality of Tim's ability was also not addressed, shifting the focus to his child-like actions - all he used his ability for was to get a girl to like him and "procrastinate" the death of his father.

If you really think about it, it wasn't a romantic comedy like how most people would expect it to be. Tim's relationship to gorgeous Rachel Adams (the word "gorgeous" was intentionally inserted, rather out-of-place, to justify the higher ratings I gave this movie) was based on deception - using his time travelling ability to perfect conversations, build stronger emotional and physical connections. 

He basically abused his ability to make himself look good... altering his bestman until it reached his ideal outcome... messing around with his sister's boyfriends hoping to make life better for himself so that he doesn't lose his sister, and spending "extra" time with his dad all by himself because he couldn't let go.

It might come across as light-hearted and heart warming to some, but deep down I felt cheated. It was like witnessing a crime and there was nothing I could do about it. At the very least, I had hoped for "aw" romance, but the closest "aw" I got was "aw-ful". 

The World's End

Ratings: 6.1/10

Film class: B+

Genre: Sci-Fi comedy action 

Gary King (Simon Pegg) reunites his group of 4 friends to conquer the most epic drinking marathon 20 years after their failed teenage attempt. It requires them to go from pub to pub (12 pubs in total) in their childhood town, to drink a glass of alcohol at each pub before reaching their final destination, the last pub on their list, The World's End. 

Unknowing to them, the town has been taken over by aliens, forcing them to become unlikely heroes, humanity's last defense. 

While the premise of the plot sounds interesting, the movie failed to deliver. There were funny bits here and there, but the story fell flat with its silly ending. My brain cells went on strike and were willing victims of the alien invasion. 

Strong cast, semi-decent scripts, but on the other extreme side of the spectrum, horrible story development with a disastrous ending. Quite the "complete" movie if you ask me. It was unfortunate, really, with such a strong cast, just like the characters themselves, this movie was struggling hard not to be wasted... And it sure didn't sober up at the world's end. 

The Master

Ratings: 6.2/10

Film class: B

Genre: Drama

A disturbed and aggressive navy veteran returns home and is allured into joining a cult by his charismatic leader. 

Hmm... what more is there? I guess that's about it, the story is as simple as it sounds, depth added by the characters' varied personalities. 

An artsy disturbing movie about the human psyche, especially that of the disturbed war veteran "Joaquin Phoenix", this film is more character study than movie movie per Se. By artsy I mean full of dialogue, full of chopped up random scenes which disrupts your viewing pleasure. It sometimes seems almost draggy, aggravated by the grainy cinematography, and it makes no difference even if you watch this in high def. However, thanks to mr violent, that's where all the "action" comes from. 

There's no take home message here, which kinda makes me feel like I wasted time on it. It's a lengthy one, this one ( like most other off mainstream artsy films), and is sure to screw your mind up a little. If you're not ready for that, then you had better not confront the master... 

Gravity

Ratings: 8.0/10

Film Class: A 

Genre: Action Drama

Is this the first movie made to portray realistically a survival situation in outer space? I don't know the answer myself, but I believe it is. 

I mean there's lotsa sci-fi movies out there, like Star Wars and Star Trek, there's even Moon, but this is possibly the most realistic space movie made. No aliens, no clones, just plain familiar "present-ries", like satellites orbiting Earth, and astronauts maintaining them. 

What seemed like an "everyday" routine turns out to be a disaster for medical engineer Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky (George Clooney) when a Russian satellite was blown up. 

It created a chain reaction, causing a bunch of debris to orbit Earth every 90 minutes. The butterfly effect at its bleakest. If you're wondering how exciting can this movie be (like I did) since there's pretty much nothing much out there in space, there's your ans. Top it up with limited oxygen, abandoned space stations, stellar acting from the only two cast in the movie and state-of-the-art CG, Gravity is one insanely intense gem in modern cinema. 

*Spoilers ahead* It didn't occur to me how scary it was until the very first first-person-view shot. I came to understand how disorientating a stranded somersaulting astronaut in space would feel like, and I felt pretty giddy during the first 30 mins of the film, thanks to the skilful film making which added such realism there was no way any audience wouldn't empathize with Ryan. 

The director wasted no time in introducing us to Matt's personality during the opening scene, subtlety through his conversations with Houston, the land comms station. I personally thought this was well-thought because it not only injected humour to a possibly monotonous setting, it also contributed to alleviating despair with a light-hearted sense of hope which would otherwise be missing if it was simply a solemn movie. 

Some of the parts were quite ingenious, on how Ryan tried to save herself, and there was always a "dead-end" somewhere, to create that added sense of tension. Will she be saved? Or will she die in space? After all, surviving in space is all about 10% oxygen, 20% determination and 70% luck. 

Gravity is nothing like I've ever seen. Despite only 2 cast, it truly deserves an "A" for film class due to the CG and the acting. I really felt as though I was in outer space (though I will never know how it really feels like) even though I only watched it in 2D. Even the scripting and storyline delivered. It was a full package - A space experience you don't want to miss. 

Switch

Ratings: 1.0/10

Film Class: B

Genre: Action

One of the worst movies I've watched. No, correction, make it the worst. Switch makes the flop Chinese movie The Treasure Hunter look good, that's how disastrous this is.

I shan't even spend more than a sentence explaining the plot, because when I started watching it, the plot became irrelevant, nothing made sense. Even if you had read the synopsis at the back of the DVD cover (like I did), you'll feel cheated because the synopsis is as good as it could ever be. In this case, words speak more than a thousand pictures. The dead text was more interesting than the sum of pictures put together. 

But if you must know, Switch is about a stolen treasure, one half of a painting, that somehow everyone wants to get their hands on. 

It must have been so embarrassing for Andy Lau to star in this... He either didn't know what he was getting into, or he was seriously desperate for cash. It's no surprise to see Taiwanese beauty Lin Chiling star in yet another flop movie, let's face it, she's got the looks, but she can't act. Still, she's makes the movie a little bit less torturous. 

I haven't felt so negative about a movie in a long while, but it didn't take Switch to make me feel that way 15 mins into the movie. I thought it was a flukish feeling, I mean, there's Andy Lau and Lin Chiling in this for christ's sake, but I so wanted to give up 49mins into the film. I somehow managed to force myself to sit through the entire movie because I wanted to be fair in my critique, despite already knowing what the outcome would be. 

At least the senseless fighting scenes were decent, and the cinematography was scenic. It was like watching bits and pieces of different adverts from time to time; there's Andy Lau in a watch commercial, in a car commercial, in a beach resort commercial etc. Mostly showing off a picturesque Dubai. 

There was zilch character development, due to the annoying jump cut scenes which never lasted more than 5 minutes each. There wasn't any continuity in the scenes and the progression was all too convenient. During one scene you see Andy Lau on the verge of death, the next, the villains traveling to a secluded forested region, the next, a group of doctors trying to save Andy Lau, the next, 5 yrs later, he's all good to go. Yup, this is just one example of how slipshod the director's works is. 

I 2nd the opinion of a reviewer on imdb, that the director should be banned from directing any movies in future. It's just a disgrace to the industry. It's an insult to movie goers, and to the fans of those poor stars. I can't believe I paid $19.90 for this, and a thought flashed past my mind during the movie, I actually thought of stopping the movie, ejecting my DVD, and snapping it in half. Yes, I felt terribly insulted. I had actually contributed to the director in "recuperating his losses". 

Switch was a low class copycat of Mission Impossible, with the wire hangings, and the face disguises. There was an "ultimate" twist in the movie! The villain had a face disguise to cover up his own face! Cos his "real" face was disfigured in a fire! "Wow!!" Disguising your face with a better looking version of your own face! Who would have thought of that?! 

Too many stunt doubles were used, and the battle between Andy Lau and the villain in fencing suits out of the blue was just lame. It didn't even make sense, the only explanation I could come up with was that the director thought he had come up with an "ingenious" idea of using stun doubles without being too obvious.... FAIL! Stab me please!! 

Note that I haven't added any warnings about spoilers, because trust me, you wouldn't want to torture yourself with this brainless piece of crap. 

Amour

Ratings: 6.5/10
Film Class: C
Genre: Drama

Amour speaks nothing of love... it's dreary, tragic and possibly one of the most undeserving winner of the Oscars - Winner of Best Foreign Language Film of The Year 2013. It got me thinking, is this year's nominees that bad? I haven't been disappointed so far, Life is Beautiful; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; The Lives of Others and Departures were a few of the many winners which left me wanting more. 

When this film ended, I kinda felt that I wasted my time watching it. I was so excited to finally buy it from my local dvd store but now it almost feels like a waste of money. It wasn't ttthhhhaaatttt bad, but it fell flat on my expectations. Even Intouchables could easily beat this (Golden Globe Nominee, a different award)... 

An elderly's couple love is put to the test when the wife comes down with a stroke which paralyses one side of her body. As time goes by, her physical and mental health deteriorates, leaving her dispaired husband having to carry the burden of a promise he made to her all by himself... that he would not send her to a nursing home no matter what happens.

That's what happens when promises are made too readily, kept too blindly... leading to an inevitable tragedy... The twist in the ending happened too abruptly, and I felt the build up of empathy lacking. Before I could even bask in their love for each other, I was repeatedly thrown with scenes of melancholy. 

When it comes to an elderly's couple love, none can beat the one portrayed in Away From Her. It was a movie that till this day resonates in my heart, and mind. Amour, on the other hand is not only a "weaker" version, but also one which is highly forgettable. It almost feels like a documentary, illustrating the harsh reality of life. 

If I had wanted to watch something as tragic as this, I might as well suffocate myself with a pillow. At least I wouldn't have to sit through 2hrs of "torture". There is no silver lining, because the only clouds are overcast ones... The posters however, might just be the rainbow that this movie needs (I love how 2 versions of the posters portrays 2 different angles of the same shot).