To the cinema : Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (Part 2)

After almost a year's wait, the concluding episode was finally here. As I was quite curious about some issues after watching part 1, I ended up asking questions to my youngest sister who had already finished reading the book. So, as the movie went on, it was not really totally unexpected.

I thought the start to the middle part were good. It started off with action, and things moved fast and furious from then on. And as with the first part, the ending was a little flat. I actually expected more action in the final battle between Harry Potter and Voldemort. Or maybe this was the only way that wizards could fight, just by pointing their wands at each other and see whose "lightning" was more powerful. Therefore, there was something lacking in the "fight" scenes.

But all in all, was not such a bad end to everything. However, I thought that "19 years later" portion could be excluded... it was kind of weird, and my sister said it was also written in the book. She thought it was shown as a kind of "closure" for the whole saga.

And after watching all the Harry Potter episodes, my favourites are The Chamber of Secrets and The Goblet of Fire.

To the cinema : Transformers : Dark of the Moon

Ok, so I lied. I know I had said before I don't think I will be watching Transformers 3, if there was any. And I really regret I didn't keep my own promise. In the end, I subjected myself to 2.5 hours of complete boredom. 

Almost an hour, I think, was spent on story-telling, conspiracy theory of the real reason for the launch of Apollo 13 to the Moon, which I personally thought was a little too long. There were so many parts that could be cut away to reduce the "drag". 

I was so relieved when the actions started *finally*, and there was actually a little twist to the story in the middle. But then, once the fighting started, it didn't seemed like it would end. Metal clashing against metal, a super building that took forever to collapse, soldiers shouting endlessly at one another, then everything started all over again. 

The only thing that I thought was slightly positive from the movie was that Rosie Huntington-Whiteley was actually quite good at acting. Not bad for a Victoria angel. 

To the cinema : Kungfu Panda 2

So, without watching any movies for the past 6 months, we managed to catch 2 movies in a row for 2 Fridays.

I guess the main focus of this episode was Po's past, and the revelation that he was adopted (surprise!). Compared to the previous episode, this focused more on the importance of relationships - friendship and kinship. There were touching moments that reminded the audience the importance of family, and parents' love for their children. This episode showed the soft side of Tigress as well.

Other than those, Po was still as fat (if not fatter) as before, and cluelessly adorable.  Always a fun and entertaining movie for everyone. :)

To the cinema : Pirates of the Carribean - On Stranger Tides

Movie buffs would be horrified to know that this was our first movie in 2011. It's not like we don't like to go to the movies, I just feel that there isn't any need to go watch a movie because it's new, or just for the sake of meeting the target of going to the cinema once a week. And not to mention the high ticket price, since we can only make time mostly on Friday evenings. So we, or rather me, am quite selective about what movies to watch at the cinemas.

This was a completely new episode, new story line. No more Kiera Knightly or Orlando Bloom (insert sad face here). But there was still the quirky Jack Sparrow. However, I felt that even the captain couldn't create much excitement, except maybe for the part when I was anticipating for the mermaids' appearance. Couldn't help but felt that this episode wasn't as interesting and exciting as the previous ones with Davy Jones (Dead Man's Chest and At World's End) in them.

To the cinema : Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1)

After the quite diasppointing "Half-Blood Prince" in my opinion, I was expecting more from the "Deathly Hallows". No doubt it was only part 1 of 2 (which I think is an attempt to make more money from us before the whole Harry Potter saga ends), I still had quite high expectations for it. It was also partly due to the feedback from the Harry Potter fan (my sister) that it was good.

But once again, it kind of disappointed me. It started off quite exciting, and I was expecting the same kind of action and energy to continue throughout the show. However, it didn't really worked out for me. To be honest, I could only feel the evil and sinister part of the dark lord getting more powerful. I didn't feel Harry Potter or his friends getting more confident or powerful to defeating him.

And as my friend had so rightly pointed out, the flow of the story was not that fantastic either. Like there was about 5-10 minutes of excitement and action, then followed by a whole 30 minutes of nothing, with no surprises or unexpected happenings. It was getting kind of predictable as the 2 hours and 10 minutes dragged on.

In my opinion, if they were to cut down on those long and draggy parts, there might not be a need to have "part 1" and "part 2" for this final episode. So, I'm off to finding the book and finish reading the "part 2" and then decide if I want to spend on catching the movie when it comes out 6 months later.

To the cinema : Iron Man 2

Yup, there is something about the movies these days with the word "man" in them. Haha. And after watching 2 movies in 2 days, I think it will be quite a while before we go for another one.

Anyway, back to Iron Man 2. Honestly, I'm not as impressed as I was with the first one. But at least, in my opinion, it was not as bad as some other sequels had been. At least it was  entertaining, not the "wow" kind, but the "oh ok" kind. And thinking back to the movie, there was actually not much of a storyline. I thought it was just to show off all the high-tech technologies and to impress audience with the animations. Other than that, it was like the team just tried to put together a movie just for the sake of a sequel. Even the action parts of the movie were not too exciting, with the bad guy struck down so fast when he was portrayed as such a genius? And what exactly is Scarlett Johansson doing in there? I can see the whole movie going on smoothly even without her. Unless it was like the rumours going around that there will be another movie with her character in it, Captain America and Thor...

Personally, I feel that there is only one climatic moment for Iron Man and Iron Man 2, that is the part where Tony Stark actually admitted that he is the superhero. So, with that already done, I didn't have much expectations for the sequel. I thought the point of being superhero is to be anonymous? Or maybe Iron Man just wants to be different from the other superheroes?

To the cinema : Ip Man 2

I can't remember if there were any sequels to any movies that we looked forward to as much as Ip Man 2. A little more than a year has passed since the first Ip Man movie had came out, and it's always a little worrying that sequels will never be as good as the first.

But after watching it, I personally felt that it was almost as good as the first movie. In the first movie, it was Chinese vs Japanese, and in this sequel, it was Chinese vs British. Since it was a semi-biographical film, the storyline is kind of simple and expected. So nothing much to say about it without revealing the whole movie. But no complaints there coz the fight scenes and Donnie Yen alone makes up for everything! Haha.

To the cinema : Bodyguards and Assassins (十月围城)

This is the last movie that we watched for 2009, and coincidentally (or not) the previous Mandarin movie we had watched was also has Donnie Yen in it. Heh.

I didn't read up about this movie, or look at reviews before stepping into the cinema. So, there was not much expectations, and I was surprised about the VIP cast, even though some appeared only for less than 10 minutes. And as I thought back about it, I realised that this is those kind of 50-50 movie, where you like it 50% but on the other hand, dislike the other 50%.

There is nothing much to talk about the film without giving the simple and somewhat expected plot away. But I can say that the 50% I like is the way the characters were introduced, and how their relationships were clearly shown. The 50% I dislike is that I expected much more action since there is Donnie Yen in it. And when there were actions in some scenes, they were over a little too quickly before we can see the skills of the character, and get excited over the fighting.

And apologies to Leon Lai fans who happen to read this. For the life of me, I can't understand why the team cannot find another more suitable face or personality for this character. I admit I was never a fan of Leon Lai, and the image of him in this movie is really not for him at all. I couldn't stop laughing whenever he appeared, and same goes for the girl sitting beside me in the cinema.

To the cinema : Up

Before I start to talk about this movie, I want you to meet the latest love of my life...
(click here and here to see him in action - can't decide which one I like more so decided to put both)


Isn't he adorable??!! I can't think of any other animated film character who is as adorable and huggable as Russell here. Also, the boy who voiced him did a wonderful job.


Ok, now, back to the movie. And I got to say that this had to be the best animated film I've seen so far. I thought it was good because it touched on 2 extreme areas.


Fantasy : By tying thousands and thousands of balloons to a house and making it fly.
I felt that it somehow brought out the child in every adult, made us recall the impossible and childish dreams that we used to have when we were young.


Reality (1) : The story of Carl and Ellie.
Their dreams of adventure when they were young, when they grew up, fell in love, and got married. And then there was the part when they realised that they could not have any children, they still stood by each other and made the most of everyday. I think this was the first animated film that made me teared up more than once. The first time was when Ellie died, the second time was when the bad guy tried to burn down the house and Carl was torn between saving the house or the bird, and the third time was when Carl was looking through the adventure book and found that Ellie had put their photos in it.


Reality(2) : There was no happy family for little boy Russell.
Most animated films would have a happy family, with the father, mother, brothers and sisters and maybe a pet dog or two. However, for Russell, his parents were separated and no, there was no happy ending where the father comes back to the family.


Despite it being an animated film, I think this is much more suited for adults than children. There were so many areas in the film that sets me thinking about my own life, and how I could really relate to some of it. This is definitely one of those movie that everyone should watch it at least once.

To the cinema : G.I. Joe

A quick search through Wikipedia tells me that, G.I. = Government Issue, therefore, G.I. Joe = Government Issue ... Joe? Why Joe??

Ok, that is not important.

The important thing is, with a movie like that, where all the characters are all acting cool and super smart and almost Superman-like, why are there NO cute guys???!!!!!

And the more I thought of it, the more I felt that the movie somehow resembled Transformers in some way, and so the husband mentioned it too. To me, it was also a mess of fight scenes, except in this movie, there were real people using sophisticated and a little unreal technologies and equipment. And honestly, there is really nothing else that stands out in the movie. Somehow, not even the ending builds up any anticipation for part 2. I'll patiently wait for the DVD release.

The only interesting thing about the movie is, with the use of such high-end technologies, it makes me wonder if some of it are not already being developed. I could use that invisible suit if there is one to spare.

To the cinema : Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Is it just me, or what? It seems like the movie blockbusters of late were quite disappointing. First was Transformers 2, now is the Half Blood Prince. I got to admit that I felt Ice Age 3 was slightly better than these two, even though it was a little non-sensical (ice age together with the dinosaur age?!), it was still quite funny and enjoyable.

I got to admit that I missed the Order of Phoenix (which I didn't know if there's any continuation from that movie to this), and I didn't read any single book of Harry Potter. But I did enjoy the first 4 Harry Potter movies, and my favourites are The Chamber of Secrets and The Goblet of Fire. Compared to those two, Half Blood Prince seemed to have lost all the magic, suspense and thrill. Oh, and did someone forget to pay the electricity bill for the movie? Coz it was all so dark and gloomy most of the time, that I guessed that was why the boy sitting behind me found it more interesting to kick at the back of my seat rather than to watch the movie.

But there was a first for me when watching this movie. I kept turning to the husband and asked for the time. When I realised that there was about 30 mins left, I thought there might at least be a climatic ending to make up for the almost boring previous 2 hours. But there was nothing! It was not until Professor Snape came up to Harry Potter and said in his usual monotonous voice, "Yes, I'm the half blood prince.", that I realised that I already didn't care who was the half blood prince anymore.

The focus also seemed to be lost, or rather divided between the budding romance among the teenagers and the problem with the bad guy. I do appreciate a little romance in a movie, but somehow in this case, I felt that it was a little too much that it bordered on irritating. Or maybe it was written like that in the storybook? Only the Harry Potter faithful reader at home can tell me. I guess for the next few movies, I would have to depend on her reviews to see if they were worth the $10 ticket price.

To the cinema : Transformers : Revenge of the Fallen

After nearly 2.5 hours of blurry transformations of machines, confusing and long fight scenes, and the actors shouting at one another most of the time, I got to say that Transformers 2 is disappointing. Ok, the entertainment level is there, but the storyline is plain old school and expected.

And apparently, seems like everyone, except for Mikaela, in the movie has something to do to try to save the Earth from the aliens, even for Sam's room mate, Leo, who obviously is introduced just to bring in humour to the movie, brought them to the RoboWarrior.

So, what, exactly is Megan Fox's role in this movie? Other than being shown as Sam's girlfriend and a sexy mechanic, and waiting for Sam to say "I love you"? No offense to those oh-i-think-Megan-Fox-is-damn-hot fans out there, but she has absolutely nothing to do in this movie. Ok, maybe to attract more male movie-goers who are not Transformers fans to boost the box office sales, other than that, her role is completely unnecessary compared to Transformers 1. And surprise! There is a Transformers 3, presumably coming out in 2011, and I wonder what will she do in there?

And then there is the contradictory part at the start when the chaos started in Shanghai. I thought the army guy said that the civilians are evacuated, then how come there is the old man still happily eating his dinner when the bad and mean machine tore through the house?

Also, those unnecessary scenes, like the one where Sam's mother innocently took too many drug-laced cookies and became high and ran crazy around his campus; the one where the twin cars fought and Bumblebee accidentally hit the wall when we all know that the key is behind that wall; and the battle scene at the dessert while waiting for Sam and Mikaela to run to save Optimus Prime. It was a longest, noisiest, messiest and most boring scene. And, the part where Optimus destroyed the Sun Harvester and the Fallen, it was so anti-climatic!!!!!!

Sorry, dear... if there really was a Transformer 3 coming out, maybe look for someone else to watch it with you? I can patiently wait for the DVD to be out and save on the movie tickets to buy tidbits to go with the DVD.

To the cinema : Angels & Demons

The "Illuminati Diamond"

Finally found the time to watch the movie. I was very excited when I first heard that Angels & Demons is going to be made into a movie. After reading this and The Da Vinci Code, I actually much preferred the former, maybe because the storyline of Da Vinci Code is much more predictable than Angels & Demons.

However, after watching the movie, I can more or less understand the less than average ratings in the reviews for it. According to the husband who had never read the book, he said it was a "good thriller". For me, however, I don't find it as exciting as The Da Vinci Code movie. There seemed to be something missing in the "thriller" department for this movie, and I just can't figure out what it was. Or maybe it was because I already know the ending to it? Or most likely it was because the disadvantage of movie is the limited time they have to bring out the whole story to the audience, and thus, just only skimmed through the main points of the plot, instead of having much more details and interesting explanations in the novel itself. For example, like the thing with the antimatter, if I didn't read the book, I'm sure to get lost in the explanation from the movie, since I'm not a scientist either.

Now I know why people sometimes say not to watch a movie who is produced from a good novel coz they will usually end up to be disappointing.

To the cinema : Fast & Furious 4

If a girly movie is called a chick flick, what do you call a movie for guys? Well, as you have probably guessed it, this is just the typical guy movie, with super fast cars and drivers with cool moves, and occassional shots of some sexy race girls (or whatever they are called) dressed just enough to cover the necessary "bits". And I can honestly tell you that there were actually some noises of appreciations (or maybe envy) when there was this part in the movie showing a row of these racing cars.

Hmmm... anything else I remembered from the movie? Oh yes, typical and expected storyline, act-cool smarty pants actors with expressionless faces and a sarcastic smirk once in a while, loud and noisy racing scenes with movements so fast that I think it can literally give you a headache (I actually had to rest my eyes during one of the chase scene).

And I wonder why the number of road accidents are on the rise despite the government's continuous compaigns for road safety... hmmm...

To the cinema : Bolt

I quite like how the way this movie starts - with an ordinary dog thinking that he has extraordinary powers, but in fact, was all just due to the magic of television.


Then the story took a turn when Bolt got accidentally shipped off, far away from the fantasy Hollywood world that he is living in, and also away from his "person", Penny, whom he loves a lot.


So, as expected, Bolt was anxious to get back to Penny, and along the journey home, met some interesting characters - an abandoned but sarcastic cat, Mittens, and a TV-addict fat hamster, Rhino, which moves around in a ball.


It was also along this journey back to Penny that Bolt realised he was just an ordinary dog, and slowly came to terms with it with the help of Mittens and Rhino.



The quirky personalities of each character was funny and in fact, quite real. You will suddenly find yourself thinking someone around you behaves just like one of them. And the humour not only appeals to the kids, but to adults as well.

To the cinema : Ip Man - 叶问

I didn't know about this movie until the husband said to me one day, "Hey, your Donnie Yen has a new movie coming up. Let's go watch it." I knew it had to be some kind of kung fu movie, or else the husband will never suggest to watch it.

There is something about Donnie Yen that makes him quite attractive, and I can't really explain what is it. Maybe it's his charisma, or the way he handles himself, or some kind of X-factor... this is a totally different kind of fantasy attraction that I have with Aaron Kwok and Takeshi Kaneshiro.


Anyway, there is honestly nothing much to say about this movie, as it is about the life story of the real Yip Man, which can be read from the summary. It's the fighting scenes that are the selling points of the movie, and the acting skills of the other seasoned actors. One can almost feel the fury, helplessness, sadness and desperation of each character just by the expressions on their faces and in their eyes. I think it's also a chance for Donnie Yen to show off his kung fu.

As it's been stated in some reports, there are already plans for the 2nd and 3rd sequels. I can't wait! Hope they do not fall under the jinx of "the-sequels-are-not-as-good-as-part-one".

Eh, I'm not a very good movie critic, am I?

To the cinema : Mamma Mia!

It should be about 5 to 6 years since Mamma Mia! musical came to Singapore. I could still remember how it was like in the Esplanade theatre, the atmosphere was highly charged and I could feel the pent-up energy of the people around me, trying hard to curb the urge to just jump up from the seats and dance along to the familiar and groovy ABBA songs. But being Singaporeans, we obediently stayed in our seats, not wanting to be the odd one out and risked people saying that we “action, action only” behind our backs. However, I’m sure that inside, everyone was imagining themselves up and about dancing and singing along to the songs. Well at least for me, my foot suddenly had a will of its own and started to tap along to “Dancing Queen”.

So, imagine my excitement when I realized that Hollywood had taken the musical and made it into a movie. Yun, Qing and I made a date to watch it together since the guys are totally not interested.

Honestly, the storyline for Mamma Mia! is not very strong. I believe it’s the lure of ABBA hits and how each song is cleverly injected throughout the plot that made it such a hit. It seems like each song is suited just for that moment of the story as it goes along. I wondered if the producers thought of the storyline first, then decide to use ABBA songs? Or did they thought of the story while going through the list of ABBA hits?

Anyway, if you are more of the movie fan than a musical fan, this is not the movie for you. Most of the acts are more theatrical-like, e.g. chasing one another among the trees, 3 middle-aged women jumping on the bed, and then the whole village singing and dancing together, etc.

Well, it would be quite unfair to compare with the musical as each has its own plus and minus points. It's the live performance vs actual scenery, professional musical cast vs all-star Hollywood cast. But personally, I much preferred the actual musical, even though the ticket may cost about 14 times more, and we had to squint our eyes to see how the performers look like, nothing beats hearing live singing and feeling the lively energy from the stage as well as the people around you.

- Mamma Mia! homepage

- Mamma Mia! movie official site

To the cinema : Kung Fu Panda

Managed to find some time to watch "Kung Fu Panda" before we fly off to Hong Kong tomorrow. Didn't really thought of watching it till we saw the making and trailer of it on TV, and with Yongqi's strong recommendation, we decided to go for it. (and also movie tickets are the cheapest on Mondays)

Anyway, nothing much needs to be said about this movie coz the plot is so very predictable. But overall, an entertaining and delightful show, with some values to learn from as well. It also made me want to pinch that fat panda tummy.
Oh, and we went for xiao long bao at Ding Tai Feng after that. 20 xiao long baos shared among the husband, Qing and myself. Heh.

To the cinema : Iron Man

I have to say, personally, I feel that this is one of the better movies that I've watched so far in the past few months. Not that I really watched a lot of movies, but I'm glad that I have chosen one that made the ticket money worth.

I have to admit that there are some movies that had such boring dialogues or parts in between that I would find myself start looking around at the other people around me in the cinema. But this is definitely not one of those movies. Iron Man keeps audience, at least I know I'm one of them, on the edge of the seat throughout the whole show.

Even for the romance scenes, you know they are there, but they don't slow down the pace of the show or make it boring. Instead, I felt that the romances are cleverly inserted into the different parts of the show to let the audience take a break from the exciting life of the superhero, and also at the same time, show the audience the softer side of our superhero.

Though as superhero movies went, there will always be some parts of the show that seem incredible and far-fetched. But those are just minor flaws compared to the overall plot of the movie.

To the cinema : The Forbidden Kingdom

When I saw the write-up of The Forbidden Kingdom in the papers, saying that after so many years and so many movies, Jackie Chan and Jet Li are finally starring in one together, I told the husband we are going to watch it when it's released.

So the husband suggested that we go after work and we quickly decided on the cinema and the next thing I know, we had already bought the tickets. It was then that I realised that I didn't even know what the movie was all about. And this was the first time that I had bought tickets to a movie without reading sypnosis and reviews. But then again, any movie with Jackie Chan shouldn't be that bad.
Anyway, for the storyline, it was nothing special or had much Wow factor as it was quite predictable. Ok, maybe there was this tiny little twist at the end. But other than that, the audience should be able to know what goes on next, so I shouldn't reveal too much here. And also, as expected, Jackie Chan is the funny man, while Jet Li is the "act-cool" guy.
One thing that made me a little uncomfortable was their dialogues. Imagine people wearing those Kungfu kind of old-times China speaking English... it was strange, and takes some getting used to, especially there are times when the actors alternate between the two languages.
But hey, it's Hollywood, baby. So, anything goes. As long as the show reaps in high box office sales.
Overall, it was an enjoyable movie, and one that is suitable for the whole family. Oh, and be prepared to see bad guys with pretty eye makeup. :)