Category: Media

The third instalment of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movie is an ambitious but deeply flawed story. The director wanted to set a more sinister mood to the film with more action featuring not one or two, but three villains taken from the popular Marvel comic books.

By introducing the Sandman, Venom and the second generation Green Goblin into the narrative, the film struggles by not providing significant character development for the three actors playing these roles – Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace and James Franco respectively. It feels as if the villains were placed in to provide nuisance for our hero, who would later take them all on in separate dramatic and heavy CGI-influenced fighting sequences.

Worst still, the love story between Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker and Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane Watson means certain scenes resembles more like a light-hearted romantic comedy than an action movie… At one point, Peter’s confidence in wearing the new black Spider suit (which was infected by a strange alien symbiote) transformed him to a Travolta-like figure from Saturday Night Fever – including those hip-thrusting dancing moves!

Despite all that, Spider-Man 3 still provides some exciting moments – in particular the chase and fighting scene featuring Spider-Man and the Green Goblin – it just a shame that the movie lacks direction with too many characters and situations.

It is unclear whether there will be a Spider-Man 4 as this outing is likely to be Raimi’s last involvement. Judging by the disappointing ending, this could be the last of the trilogy, unless Sony Pictures has other ideas…

Following on from the success of Sin City, comic book writer Frank Miller has created a stylish look with this brutal and violent movie. Based on his graphic novel, 300 focuses on the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C.

Spartan King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 of the finest warriors are led to an epic battle against the advancing Persians. This struggle is said to have inspired all of Greece to band together against the Persians, and helped usher in the world’s first democracy.

The fighting sequences in 300 are truly breathtaking with strong uses of gore and slow motion. Director Zack Snyder (whose previous work includes a remake of the cult horror classic Dawn Of The Dead) has done a spectacular job in creating a visual masterpiece that seems to be lifted straight off Miller’s comic book. The heavy use of blood splatter and CGI may seem over-the-top, but the end result works well.

Even though the dialogue consists of much shouting including the well-known phrase that is “Madness? THIS IS SPARTA!” the action is the true star in this two-hour film. And it delivers with fancy editing that puts the viewer right into the heart of the battle.

As for Gerard Butler playing the lead role, his presence on the screen is immensely powerful. You could feel the fire burning inside of him, with the sadness, inner struggles, but also the dignity and the kindness of the King.

300 is a movie that integrates the potentials of film-making and story-telling in a wonderful new way that is the best of both entertainment and artistic achievement.

Elisha Cuthbert’s new horror movie Captivity has received a string of complaints due to a set of disturbing posters advertising the film.

The adverts show a panel of photographs of actress Elisha Cuthbert being abducted, confined, tortured, and killed. People felt the images of this young woman were too graphic and insisted they be ripped down.

The film producers insist the billboards went up by mistake, and have agreed to pay for the removal of the ads in Los Angeles and New York City.

How did this happen? Production house After Dark Films CEO Courtney Solomon explains that the wrong files were sent to the printer, who then passed them on to the billboard company without approval from any executives…

Despite this PR disaster, I don’t think this film will be any good. A real shame as Elisha is a talented actress and deserves so much better.

Yet another movie adapted from Marvel Comics. Ghost Rider tells a story of a superstar motorcycle stunt rider named Johnny Blaze (played by Nicolas Cage). Who strikes a deal with the devil to save his dying father (who is suffering from cancer) with his immortal soul.

When his father was killed in a stunt, the young Johnny was filled with emotional pain that he decided to run away, leaving his childhood sweetheart Roxanne Simpson (the sexy Eva Mendes) behind.

Years later, Johnny’s path crosses again with Roxanne, now a TV news reporter along with the devil – the fearsome Mephistopheles (Easy Rider’s Peter Fonda) – who offers to release Johnny’s soul if he becomes the fiery and ruthless Ghost Rider, a supernatural agent of vengeance and justice, who happens to have a skull on fire!

His only hopes of getting his soul back is to kill Mephistopheles’ own son, Blackheart, who plans to displace his father and create a new hell even more terrifying than the old one.

Ghost Rider is an enjoyable movie and director Mark Steven Johnson has done a creditable job in adapting a character from the comics onto the big screen. As for Cage, some believe he was too old to play the role, but the actor has managed to pull it off with some style and substance.

The main highlight was the chase scene in downtime Melbourne, when the Ghost Rider leads the police force over bridges, under water, down dark and narrow alleyways and even up the side of a skyscraper!

The visual effects are also impressive, creating a stunning look to the fiery Ghost Rider.

A fun and amusing movie that will appeal to fans of the series and the average moviegoers. And yes, it won’t generate the same box office success compared to Marvel’s other big movie – Spider-Man – but as an action film in its own right, it’s certainly entertaining.

How do you follow up to the critical acclaim Shaun Of The Dead? That was the scenario for Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and director Edgar Wright after setting a true high standard in film making with a romantic comedy featuring zombies.

And yet the former Spaced team has done the impossible and managed to create a film that feels fresh with new jokes and clever references to other action movies.

Simon Pegg plays Nicholas Angel, one of the finest police officer in London. He is so good at his job, that he makes everyone in the police force look bad. So his superiors decided to send him off to a place where his talents won’t be quite so embarrassing – the sleepy and seemingly crime-free village of Sandford, where there hasn’t been a recorded murder for twenty years.

Once there, Angel meets an enthusiastic police officer named Danny Butterman (played by Nick Frost). Danny is a huge fan of action movies and after a few drinks with his new partner; he invites Angel back to watch a couple of his favourite cop films.

Danny believes that Angel has seen all kind of action in the big city including gunfights and car chases. But he stressed the point that this wasn’t the case.

All this changed when a series of grisly “accidents” rocked the village. Angel becomes suspicious that all these were linked somehow but no one believed him – apart from Danny.

Angel sets out to investigate and was shocked to discover that a secret organisation named NWA (not the rap group, but Neighbourhood Watch Alliance) was behind all these accidents.

The NWA members were murdering anyone who lessens the character of the village, claiming that it is for the “greater good”. But this obsession of claiming the title of Village of the Year was madness for Angel.

So Danny and Angel set out to dispatching the members of the NWA in a series of frantic and over-the-top gunfights. That’s one way of settling the matter!

Hot Fuzz is packed full of references, which will take multiple viewings to catch. Director Edgar Wright’s continuous use of quick cuts moves the action at a rapid pace but for the viewer, it’s an entertaining ride in this 120-minute movie.

Both Pegg and Frost certainly make this film worthwhile due to their chemistry together. They are good mates in real life and it shows on-screen.

But it was ex-Bond star Timothy Dalton who stole the limelight. To see the former spy playing the sinister Mr Skinner with a moustache twirling relish!

Hot Fuzz is definitely the film of the year so far and it goes to show that the British can do Hollywood-style action movies.

Richard Kelly’s psychological thriller tells a fascinating story on a bright but troubled young man, who suffers from a mental illness. After narrowly escaping death by a falling jet engine, Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) experiences repeated visions of a six-foot tall rabbit named Frank.

The grotesque giant rabbit warns Donnie that the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds. He then encourages Donnie to commit seemingly random acts of vandalism, including flooding his school and burning down Jim Cunningham’s (Patrick Swayze) house.

Donnie is an emotionally troubled teenager, who is trapped in a world where teachers, parents and other adults want to simplify everything into two extremes – fear and love, right and wrong, Republicans and Democrats.

Kelly has skilfully directed this movie by allowing the viewer to experience the insane and hallucinate visions from Donnie’s point of view. The director also makes great use with the 1980s soundtrack, in particular the scene when he pans the camera to each of the characters – Magnolia-style – to Tears For Fear’s Mad World. This indeed is a strange and troubled world we live in.

Donnie Darko has been described as a high school movie directed by David Lynch (made famous by Twin Peaks) with themes on time travel, love, sacrifice and existentialism. The movie presents paradoxes never fully explained and a cryptic storyline open to multiple interpretations. A modern cult classic, with exceptional performance from Jake Gyllenhaal and a breathtaking cinematography, creating a dreamlike atmosphere that sets the mood of the film.

This is South Korean’s modern answer to an Elizabethan revenge tragedy. Full of insanely grand passions, bloodthirsty violence and dark comedy, it’s a sadistic masterpiece from the director of Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.

The film won the Grand Jury prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival with high praise from none other than Quentin Tarantino (the Pulp Fiction director was heading the jury). Oldboy can be described as a psychological thriller, utilizing many elements of film noir to examine the nature of sin and morality.

Korea actor Choi Min-sik stars as Dae-su, a skirt-chasing businessman with a wife and daughter. During a night out drinking, the police arrests Dae-su for being drunk and disorderly. His close friend, Joo-Hwan, bails him out. While Joo-Hwan is in a phone booth talking to Dae-su’s daughter (who is celebrating her birthday), an anonymous person kidnaps Dae-sa.

For the next 15 years, Dae-su is locked up in shabby little hotel room. He is kept in this ‘private prison’ without any contact from the outside world with only a TV set to keep him company. Over time, Dae-su manages to fill in several notebooks as a way of keeping himself sane but is puzzled by the reason why a person would imprison him like this. Dae-su also forced himself to train by shadow boxing, punching at the walls of his prison until thick calluses form on his knuckles.

During this period, he learns via the television set that he is accused of his wife’s murder and that his young daughter has been sent away to a foster family. Just as abruptly as he was captured, Dae-su is set free and vows to get his revenge.

Embarking on his quest to discover the person responsible for his imprisonment, Dae-su teams up with female sushi chef Mi-Do (Kang Hye-jung) – by impressing her in his ability to eat a live, wiggling octopus in one single go!

Later on, a man named Woo-jin (Yu Ji-tae) contacts Dae-su and claims to be the one who imprisoned him. He offers to play a game with Dae-su: Find out why all this has happened to him in the next five days or else Mi-Do dies. If Dae-su wins, then Woo-jin will kill himself.

Eventually Dae-su meets Woo-jin face-to-face, but this ends with a shocking and a bizarre twist of fate for the lead character.

Oldboy is a stylish but violent film from the creative genius of Chan-Wook Park. His vision in this revenge movie features many iconic scenes of blood and gore, in particular the perfectly-choreographed corridor fight sequence where Dae-su single-handedly takes on 20-odd guys that visually looks like a side-scrolling beat ‘em up video game.

Oldboy may not appeal to everyone’s taste, but it can be regarded as the best Korean film to date, with a fascinating story and beautiful cinematography. An Asian movie not to be missed!