Aloha

Ratings: 6.8/10

Film class: C 

Genre: Romantic Drama

Bradley Cooper is a military contractor who was assigned to Hawaii to clinch a deal with a local tribe. Accompanying him is an elite Air Force watch-dog, the all too gorgeous Emma Stone. 

For most parts, I was clueless. The plot was messy, and not well explained. However, it took a turn for the better when the romance started to fly. Bradley Cooper's ex, Rachel McAdams, is also a force to be reckoned with. The limelight was equally shared among the 3 leads, but an unknown female cast, Rachel McAdam's daughter turned out to be the ultimate "wow" factor. 

Jokes were novel, but not very well thought of. The silent guy-talk was silly, but memorable. The plot wasn't really that predictable, because of what a jerk Bradley Cooper was. Pretty mind-boggling, with lotsa Hawaiian folklore strung into the flippant plot. 

Chemistry wasn't electric. There was something off about the romance, possibly cos it sparked too abruptly. 

However, the 2nd half of it was strangely sweet. It was... Just sweet. Period. Despite the rough pace, unconvincing acting and the lack of a likable male lead, I was able to immense myself ever so slightly. I liked the slight twist at the end, probably was what salvaged it. Oh yeah, and one last thing, speaking about salvage, there's 1.5 stingers; there's a memorial scene, and the other 0.5 is about the floating space debris (not really a scene in itself but just something flying past the screen while the credits was rolling). 

Just as strange as their sparks flew, I find this film rather enjoyable. Good enough for me.

Whiplash

Ratings: 7.8/10

Film Class: C

Genre: Drama

An ambitious drummer gets into the best music school in the country and pushes himself to the limits to earn the respect of his obnoxious tutor, Fletcher. Whiplash is technical, exaggerated, gritty and has an ending deserving of a standing ovation. For most parts, they didn't astound, but the "twist" in the ending was indeed a drumroll stunner. 

I felt the acting wasn't that solid, simple storyline, predictable especially with the romance subplot. For most parts, I was as puzzled as the drummers, wondering to myself whether were they rushing or dragging their tempo when Fletcher was f-ing them. Wee bit graphic with the splattering of blood, but the cringes were mainly caused by the tension between the 2 main leads. 

The actual score of "Whiplash" wasn't electrifying, needless to say neither did the other soundtracks impressed. I can appreciate jazz and drumming, but the highlight of the movie was the tension and the comeback which makes Whiplash more than a "feel-bad" exhilarating movie.

Max Max: Fury Road

Ratings: 7.5/10

Film Class: B+

Genre: Action

A visual spectacle of what looked like raw, crude cinematography and loads of action-packed car-chases scenes sewn together. Mad Max: Fury Road is yet another gloomy-looking post apocalyptic movie about the degradation of humanity, redemption and hope. It's horded with loads of mutated looking beings all fighting to get back a ruler's supermodel-looking wives... who were rescued by a kick-ass heroine played by Charlize Theron. An unlikely alliance was formed when Max (Tom Hardy) was thrown into the tracks of the armored tanker truck driven by Charlize Theron, literally. And I have to say, Max is one mad hardy son of a gun...

The names of the cast was catchy, with names like Immortan Joe, Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), The People Eater, Nux (Nicholas Hoult), Rictus Erectus etc. it's hard not to associate this with coolness - like a graphic novel, or even a superhero cartoon. However, the names were not repeatedly mentioned, which meant that if you missed it the first time, you'll probably just identify with the cast with the way they looked (every one had their own unique look) instead of their catchy names. 

There were also many female eye candies amidst the hideous male cast. Yup, the make-up of the guys in this movie are just repulsive, with the exception of the male lead, Max. They were either massively scarred, physically mutated or had weird things stuck to either their faces and bodies. Not my cup of tea. Which really made the eye candies soooo soooo liberating to the eyes.... 

What I really liked was the stark contrast of the "good team". Mainly female eye candies, with only 2 male leads, Tom Hardy and Nicholas Hoult. Which kinda helped shined the focus on the 2 guys who were more, how should I say this, more susceptible to getting their hands dirty. Of course there's Charlize Theron, who was equally as badass, but the most human-like of all. Furiosa acted as a reminder of humanity, Max as a dependent hero and Nux as the unsung hero. 

The reason I'm not waving my underwear and making cave-man calls is because of the savagery and senseless gore portrayed. It's mainly brainless fighting, and the plot was simple. There was a slight twist, to be more accurate a U-turn in the plot, which didn't bode well with me. My wife said that it's about finding new hope, I say it's much ado about nothing. 

Action scenes were cool, intense at times, and the best fight scene for me was the one without vehicles (ironically) - the duel between Furiosa and Max. I was never a huge fan of car chases, and this movie was 90% car-chasing action-packed.  

A revolutionary movie which dared to test the boundaries of cinematic creativity, Mad Max: Fury Road is in a class of its own, twisted but entertaining. There were horror-like scenes at times, humorous ones as well, but the bulk of it was just plain head-on-explosive-guy-flick-like impressive. However not much substance in the plot, but overall a great movie worth torturing your eardrums for.

Note:
As an afterthought just for fun, if I could I sum this up with movie references, it would be:-
A group of slasher flicks deformed antagonists and "Silent Hill" underlings mounting vehicle mods like "Death Race" to hunt down a rugged-looking Daniel Craig "James Bond" and "G.I. Jane" to bring back a group of girls who turned out to be more "Sucker Punch" girls than Victoria Secrets supermodels, set in a backdrop of "The Hills Have Eyes". Short bursts of haunting scenes reminiscence of Sam Raimi's "Spider-man" with heavy metal soundtrack. 

Unfriended

Ratings: 7.7/10

Film Class: C

Genre: Horror Thriller (Supernatural)

Scare factor: 3/5 (pretty intense)

Staying away from the trailers, I was able to keep my suspense up till the actual viewing of the movie. All I knew was that Unfriended is a movie about cyberbullying, which drove a teenage girl to commit suicide. A year later, the group of friends who caused her death was disrupted by an unknown presence in an online chat room. I was under the impression that there was some semi-supernatural stuff going on, perhaps a psychotic killer on the loose hoping to get some revenge, but nope, it was full on supernatural.

It was psychologically scary, due to its realism - filmed in the style of a first person's view of what she sees on her computer screen, *spoilers alert* with the exception of the last scene. The believable, but slightly exaggerated plot got me at the end of my seat throughout, it started with a bang, and ended with a slam. There weren't many "cheap scares", mainly because of the seemingly limited soundtrack. There were of course tension build ups, with several sudden sound scares, but most of the supernatural stuff weren't in your face-type. There were more gory-like, Final Destination style. 

You'll need a stomach for gore to be able to sit through this horror film, it was more disturbing than horrifying. Still, I was pretty shaken up. 

*warning, major spoilers ahead* It was slightly exaggerated because of the video that caused the girl's death... her shitting in her undies after getting senselessly drunk. While it's embarrassing, I don't see how it would lead to a girl shooting herself in her head. She didn't seem like an outcast, and the so-called "cyberbullying" wasn't that extreme. Just offending comments made in response to her video. But it does bring into light the issue of cyberbullying, and the consequences it might trigger. 

I especially liked the style of filming. Though simple, and minimalist, it created a great sense of realism, thanks to the unexpectedly convincing acting of the unknown cast. In fact, it didn't even seem like they were acting at all. Seemed like they were genuinely chilling out and acting according to how the story developed. I wouldn't be surprised to know that they were unaware of the script until the very last minute... which of course I know couldn't be so because of how they died. *opps, cover mouth* Ok, guess I spilled the beans, let out their dirty secrets, but hey, you've been warned. 

It was also partially enriching for me... I'm not sure if the chat room they used was Skype (yup, haven't used that before), and was impressed about how certain "bugs" were created for the purpose of the movie... Like not being able to disconnect a person in the chat group (is that even possible?), like disabling the "forward" option in email, like disabling "unfriending" in Facebook (FB), or even reporting a dead person's account in FB (does it even exist?). There's some serious eye-opening tech stuff being showcased here.

It's not the first to use the concept of online messaging, but definitely the first in making an entire movie out of it. Refreshing, seat-gripping, and raw, Unfriended is the fore-runner in low-budget horror films. No shaky camera work (ok, maybe a bit via the webcams) and I’m impressed with the occasional bad-connection pixelation, freeze panes and loading of screens which added suspense and more bonus points to realism. Though low budget, it feels like a well-thought of, well-made horror movie which has been scarcing out in recent years. 

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Ratings: 7.2/10

Film Class: A

Genre: Superhero Action

Stinger: Yes (mid-credits)

Packed with action but lacking in plot, this sequel of the Avengers was cool-ly confusing. The Avengers must overcome their greatest fears and band together with new allies after Iron Man screwed up by activating an Artificial Intelligence gone wrong - Ultron. Bent on destroying the world so that it can be "remade", Ultron is like a Transcendence version of Megatron. His abilities were nowhere near cool, just that he was able to be everywhere (cyberspace), control all technology and make an army s***load of machines for the Avengers to take on. 

*spoilers ahead*

The movie was like a superhero version of Hangover, a group of bickering grown up guys trying to out-talk one another with whoever has the funniest one-liner. A floppy "stand-up" comedy with too many lines falling flat, and too many leads snatching the limelight. On one hand we are drawn into the "sextion" (sexual tension) of Black Widow and Hulk, then we have the bickering of the alpha males, Iron Man, Thor and Captain America, then we get to feel a bit more for the seemingly less awesome, most human family man Hawkeye, we get to see the extreme transformation of the repentant new kids on the block, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, and finally get to scratch the our heads over the sudden creation of a new god-like superhero, Vision. 

Perhaps the funniest moment in the movie was handled effortlessly by Vision, where he picked up where the Avengers left off at the start. The opening sequence was inferior to X-Men: First Class, and the ending was like reliving the 1st installment of the Avengers franchise, where the members would gather in a circle and start fighting bad guys concurrently... almost like a trademark scene. 

I don't know how such a predictably boring script could have been approved by its creator Stan Lee, but I reckon that it has something to do with getting him drunk. 

There was however a small twist, the death of a superhero. Trust me, you wouldn't see it coming. 

And yes, there's the usual Stan Lee cameo and the sequel stinger. About 8 seconds long and it featured... *drum roll*, another God-like being, Thanos! It's about time the producers and director bring in the big fish! "Loki and Ultron, come on (sarcastic tone)?!" I sat through till the very last bit, hoping that there were perhaps 2 stingers (I only recall ever sitting through a Marvel movie with 2 stingers, was it The Avengers?), but all I was treated to were the ending words "The Avengers will be back". So don't bother, feel free to leave after seeing Thanos and hope that the next time they return, they will finally be more intact. 

PS.: To the Avengers... "Stop splitting up after the end of every Avengers movie to film your own Superhero sequels before teaming up again in future! Stop treating the Avengers team like a part-time job!" 

Predestination

Ratings: 8.8/10

Film class: B

Genre: Sci-Fi Thriller

Predestination looks to be a low budget thriller on time travel, which takes place in an alternate reality where a few chosen elites are able to go back in time to prevent crimes from happening. It sounds similar to Minority Report, however with a less impressive cast (no A-listers), CG, and publicity. While it's not blockbuster material, its strong script and impressive acting wowed me, deserving of what I would call, yet another hidden gem. 

It's not too intellectually heavy on surface level, but it does bruise your brain a bit. The multiple twists are guaranteed to deliver some of the most memorable in cinematic history. Were the twists important? Yes, so much so that my advice would be to stop reading now and go watch it with an open mind. The less you know, the better the experience will be for you. It's relatively dialogue heavy, but rest assured sitting through the entire movie will be well worth it. 

*ultimate spoilers ahead, do not read further if you haven't reached predestination* So did the plot twists make sense? Or did they open bigger loop holes? Well, the only feedback I received from my movie buddy, none other than my wife, was that the physical built of both leads were different. That's for the absolute critics, in a way, it didn't bother me that much. 

1st major twist: The female protagonist was forced to undergo sex change due to her pregnancy and was given a chance to go back in time to kill the man who impregnated her. She went back, and realized that the "man" her previous self met was actually her present self. So it meant she had sex with herself. And did she change the course of history? Nope. So yeah, it makes sense cos their relationships just went round in a loop. And was it actually possible to have sex with yourself and have a baby after? Well the movie did explain why (she has two full sets of sex organs in her body) and it also did good subtle explanations like she, who after changing into a man said in a bar encounter with the male protagonist, Ethan Hawke that "she-he" was no longer shooting blanks. The only convenient excuse of an explanation was how she was forced to undergo a sex change as a result of her pregnancy. If both sex organs had indeed been growing symbiotically until then, how does a pregnancy force the female sex organs to lose its dominance and ends up being life threatening instead?

2nd major twist: The elusive villain, the "The Fizzle Bomber", was actually Ethan Hawke himself, his future self. Was it possible? Yeah, it would seem so, because his time travelling briefcase failed to decommission him, meaning he was officially off-the-grid but his device was still working. Which also meant he was able to go back in time to stop himself from stopping himself... (Hope that doesn't confuse you) ie. That's why he's always a step ahead of his past self. But the ending did show that he was able to finally shoot his future self. Which kinda didn't mean he wouldn't exist (the time traveller's grandfather paradox, that if you went back in time to kill your grandfather and succeed, you wouldn't even have existed in the first place to do that). Since he killed his future self, in who knows how many loops he has been through, it only meant the fizzle bomber wouldn't exist in the new reality. His past self would still have existed and perhaps for some critics you might argue that he wouldn't have existed for that purpose of going in loops to finally kill himself, that explanation is good enough for me. Perhaps it just meant a different alternate reality would happen, making this movie irrelevant, and who knows, perhaps a sequel might pop up something in the near future? And if he hadn't killed his future self, the "Fizzle Bomber", it would mean he would become the bomber in the future, and the loop resets itself. Makes sense to me. 

And I liked this twist because in its own twisted sense, the "Fizzle Bomber" has his reasons for turning out the way he is. The "greater good", "thin line between right and wrong" scenario... 

3rd major twist: The female protagonist turned out to be Ethan Hawke himself after she-he was disfigured during a failed attempt to stop the "Fizzle Bomber", who by know you know, is himself. So can the same person give birth to himself, so that he can impregnate himself, to hunt himself down, to kill himself? While its a very cool twist, it's the most uncredible. Forcefully, it might make some sense, about his abnormaly, as to why he has 2 sets of sex organs in him. But this twist just makes the "grandfather paradox" sounds like child's play. He went back to the past to "make himself", and the future to "kill himself", there's just so many variables I don't know where to start. It's worst than a snake biting its own tail (an apt analogy used in the movie), it's like an invisible snake biting its own tail. There's no way you can even verify the existence of the snake... 

As I've always said, Sci-Fi thrillers on time travelling will never be perfect. It makes "Looper" looks so bad, and is on par with "Minority Report", but because it's able to achieve some awesomeness with a much lower budget, it has topped one of the most tricky Sci-Fi genres to tackle till date. 

Before I end off, there's a particular scene which I thought should deserve mention. There's a strong hint during the bar scene when she-he was speaking to Ethan Hawke, about his ideology and impression of the "Fizzle Bomber", that perhaps the bomber was doing the world a favor. I suspected then that she-he was the bomber, which turned out to be true, just that I didn't expect them to be all the same person. It's an interesting point. Because think of his life as 5 major points - 1 (baby-child), 2 (woman), 3 (she-he), 4 (Ethan Hawke), 5 (Fizzle bomber). For the bar scene, 3 and 4 were together. But 3 was thinking more like 5, because of the circumstances he was put through, and 4 was the only "altruistic" one. It's almost like a schizo scenario, how certain circumstances will change the same person into a different person and in a way a true reflection of life. We're never the same person throughout our life, that's why when we take personality tests, the results may change in time, depending on the phases in our lives. Does it mean deep down Ethan Hawke was more "psychotic" than normal? The "majority" doesn't necessarily apply here because in every version of himself, his purpose was practical, logical, "right". 

Predestination hits the homerun with the deeply memorable quotes, the finesse in scripting and execution, and the mind expanding plot twists. If this movie doesn't get you "there", I don't know what else will. 

(Note: An interesting afterthought I had was that the person who actually recruited she-he was actually his future self. So if he hadn't done that, that means the "Fizzle Bomber" wouldn't have existed. Would that bring the "grandfather's paradox" in play then? Perhaps the director's way of answering this question was by answering with another "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?", a question posed by the lead to himself. And the answer was (thankfully there was an answer), the rooster. As absurd as it sounded then, during the movie, it might make sense now. I don't know what the director (who was also the scriptwriter) had in mind when he provided that answer, but I can think of two reasons for that. 

The first, was because the rooster referred to Ethan Hawke, or perhaps she-he. Because the rooster's male, so either Ethan Hawke for recruiting himself so that a certain future could be set in play, or for she-he to join this special organization so that he could ultimately become the "Fizzle Bomber", which also meant setting that same future in play. If that's true, perhaps what the director meant, was that we have been looking at this question the wrong way. It's not a matter of the start or the end, but the middle. The middle sets the start and end in play. Absurd? Perhaps, but an interesting viewpoint to consider. 

The second possibility, was that the rooster (thanks to the limited male cast making it easier to pinpoint the "cause") refers to Ethan Hawke's boss, for recruiting him. But it's weird, because by right, Ethan Hawke recruited himself. But the movie did show she-he meeting his boss eventually. Perhaps there's an indirect reference to "God". That the boss was like "God", and he was the one who actually set everything in motion. Similar concept as the first point, that things started in the middle, not the start or end as logic would have misled us to restrict ourselves mentally. 

But whatever the "real" answer the director had in mind, it's sure something fun to ponder on...)

The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water

Rating: 7.3/10

Film Class: A

Genre: Animated Comedy

The spongebob goofy gooberism is simply off the aquatic scale of lame. The jokes are bold, original and diversified. There's in your face, as well as subtle you-might-miss-it-if-you-blink humor. *spoilers ahead* I missed the "Davy Jones Book Checkout" joke, it wasn't until my friend pointed it out to me post-movie that made me vaguely recall seeing his name during that particular scene...

The Krusty Krabby Patty's secret formula was stolen by a cunning human pirate, acted by Anotonio Banderas. As a result, the whole of Bikini Bottom (aquatic world that the Spongebob characters live in) enters an apocalytic state. It's up to Spongebob and his unlikely alliance with all-time villain Plankton to find the secret formula and bring peace back to Bikini Bottom. Be prepared for a little superhero Spongebob action!

*major spoilers ahead* What I like about Spongebob movies is that because it's so lame, there's always an unexpected plot twist. The plot doesn't run logically linear, instead, it just shoots at you with psychedelic time travelling music, talking dolphins, a rap duel, spastic tyre bullying, and a most memorable piano jamming scene. You could even change the fate of the characters by changing the text on a page. What the fish?!

There was no insult to my intelligence because thankfully I went prepared. I gave my brains a day off, and what I got in return, was a money-wasting mental rollercoaster ride of fun. For most parts, I didn't have to pretend to laugh, I actually did. While it could be more worthwhile to get the DVD or Blu-Ray, watching an animated movie with realistic live-cartoon scenes on the big screen makes it somewhat less of a rip-off but more of a worthwhile movie experience.