Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars the Movie? Yes please! :)

http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/03/13/veronica-mars-movie-is-a-go-kickstarter/

Django will be shown in China...

http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/django-unchained-becomes-first-quentin-tarantino-movie-released-china-81131

While Steven Soderbergh speaks at San Francisco...

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/steven-soderbergh-deliver-san-francisco-428234

Casting: Leslie Mann, Robert Duvall...

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/03/13/casting-net-mann-duvall-ryan/

Scream 4

More info has been revealed about the new Scream movie...

I am so excited... Scream 4 looks set to be just as good as Scream or Scream 2...

Sookie Stackhouse...

Veronica Mars...

is set to do a cameo like Jada Pinkett Smith in Scream 2 or...

Drew Barrymore's intense scene in Scream...

http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20100826/ten-entertainment-us-scream-db3f2d5.html

Movie Weekend

Saw four films this weekend... okay, okay, one was on Thursday... there was like a drought for the past couple of weeks, and now we're bombarded with a lot of movies...



The first one I saw was Shutter Island... at GSC Pavilion... this is like the fourth Scorsese-DiCaprio pairing... the first one was Gangs of New York in 2002, followed by The Aviator in 2004 and then The Departed in 2006... a collaboration that has resulted in an Oscar nomination... for The Aviator... and he would have gotten a nomination for The Departed but he got it for Blood Diamond, imho... and I am predicting this performance will also go down well come award season...

Shutter Island tells the story of US Marshall Teddy Daniels, along with his partner Chuck, going to Shutter Island, a prison/treatment facility for criminals who are mentally unstable... The reason they are going there is to investigate the disappearance of one patient from the facilities...

Unfortunately, the longer they are there, the weirder things get and somehow things all point out to Daniels who are close to blowing the lid on the facility's mistreatments of the criminals/patients...

Also, a side plot is Daniels searching for his wife's murderer who was committed to Shutter Island... but things are not what they seem on Shutter Island...

It's a nice movie... complete with twists and turns that confuses and adds depth to the story... I really enjoyed the movie and was pleasantly surprised at the acting and the all star cast that included Ben Kingsley, Patricia Clarkson, Michelle Williams and Mark Ruffalo.

Next up, Date Night and When In Rome... I was at Times Square for the Gatsby Street Fair thingy and I don't have any other plans later so I decided to catch a movie... or two...

Wanted to catch Date Night and Kick Ass but Kick Ass wasn't showing at Times Square so I looked at the showing times and decided to catch Date Night at 1.40pm, after lunch, and then When In Rome at 4pm...

Date Night has one of my faves in it... Tina Fey... that lady is awesome... she created 30 Rock and she was responsible for one of the most entertaining Weekend Updates on SNL ever! Also, she wrote Mean Girls... she is my idol... but her movies so far have been a swing and a miss... so I was hesitant to go see it... plus I am not really a Steve Carell fan... he is one of the ones that I really don't get, like Will Ferrell... until this blogger said it was good... so I put it on my to-watch list...

Date Night stars Tina Fey and Steve Carell as a married couple who are stuck in a rut with their lives and even the one thing they had going for them, their date night, is also in a rut.

One night, after hearing about their married friends getting a divorce, they decided to spice things up. Taking someone's reservation at a chic NY restaurant, a pair of hooligans mistook them for another couple and demanded a flash drive at gun point.

After that, the Fosters went through a bunch of misadventures to save themselves and hilarity ensued...

But if you really wanna laugh out loud, don't leave the theater as soon as the movie's done... watch the bloopers... :)

When In Rome stars another fave of mine... Kristen Bell... who was awesome in Veronica Mars and Heroes... Bell plays a girl who has been hurt and is gun shy about love... she goes to Rome for her sister's wedding and met handsome Josh Duhamel... but then she sees him smooching someone else so she went into the Fountain of Love and picked up five coins.

Legend has it, the owners of the coins will fall in love with her... and sure enough, they do... and wacky hijinks ensues... until she realized that the guy she's falling for is actually one of the owners of the coins she took from the fountain...

The movie is lightweight and breezy and fun... Kristen Bell is always good... Josh Duhamel surprised me in this movie... he made his name in Transformers... but he showed that he could be like a romantic lead and physical comedy actor as well...

To complete the movie weekend was Kick Ass on Sunday... at Cheras Leisure Mall... this film is about a guy who dresses up in costumes and tries to stop crimes... without having actual powers... or basic martial arts skills...

Kick Ass is the name of the main character... after a while, other normal heroes were introduced, including Nicolas Cage's Big Daddy and a very kickass Hit Girl, who was about 11 years old...

It was like Batman Begins/The Dark Knight meets Watchmen plus a bit of Mystery Men, then add a sprinkle of Kill Bill...

The story's gory and real... but there are hints of comedy and also a bit like old school comics... nice blend of all genres... I really enjoyed the movie...

Guess Hollywood finally got it right after botching it up slightly with Watchmen...

Watching Movies

Twas a long break during the christmas holidays... time to catch up on some movie watching in the cinemas... there was plenty to choose from... of course the first thing I caught was Avatar...

We came in slightly late... the movie has started... maybe 5 to 10 minutes late... the hero has been transported to Pandora already... oh well...

Avatar's story is about humans trying to survive after they've nearly destroyed their own planet. They found a planet full of riches called Pandora and they're trying to get rid of the natives (Na'vi) so that they could harvest these riches.

Unfortunately, the Na'vi are not budging. Instead of a full scale invasion, some scientists decided to infiltrate the Na'vi using body doubles that they can control remotely ie the Avatars.

They need to get the Na'vi's cooperation or the army will start bulldozing and shooting...

I watched it in 3D. Avatar really is a masterpiece, combining all kinds of technology. The story itself was good and the acting is excellent. The final battle is a sight to be seen. One of the best movies out this year. Really.

Bodyguards & Assassins have a huge cast and it ran for 2 and a half hours. Quite long eh? The storyline is simple. A revolutionary leader intended to stop by Hong Kong to meet with faction leaders to discuss, what else, revolting... an assassination order was given out and the local rebels decided to put their lives on the line to ensure the leaders meet.

The 'chase' scenes were pretty good but there were too little fighting sequences given that there were plenty of action stars in it. Maybe if they shorten the movie, then the action sequence would seem longer...

There was a dubbing problem, not sure whether it was intended or an oversight... but a lot of the characters's mouth were not moving as the voices/dialogue that we can hear...

Couples Retreat. The rare one in this mix. The one with a lot of talking and no fighting nor explosion in it. Some people find that a turn-off. Well, with a title called Couples Retreat... you should know what kind of a movie this would be yes?

One couple (Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell) found themselves drifting apart because they could not conceive so they enlist their friends to come with them for therapy.

This is quite a funny, charming movie. The writing and the acting was spot on. The actors have great chemistry. I really liked Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars, Heroes) and Malin Ackerman (Watchmen).

Now, we're back to action and explosions and fighting. Sherlock Holmes. Who doesn't know him? But they've updated him into someone more dashing and debonair, slightly in the veins of 007 but slightly looser... and Watson is not just a doctor. He's a swashbuckling, handsome one.

The story starts out as Holmes and Watson thwarted Lord Blackwood's latest attempt to murder and it spiraled out of control from there. Apparently, Lord Blackwood's dealing with the supernatural and has risen from the grave and is now killing off people still. So now, Holmes and Watson needs to solve the mystery and stop Lord Blackwood's devious plans.

In the midst of all these, comes a distraction in the form of Miss Adler, who is working for someone else... and this is being set-up for Sherlock Holmes 2 I think...

Pretty good show, nicely mixing comedy, drama, mystery and action. Robert Downey and Jude Law have good chemistry together. Can't wait for Part 2... :)

Finally, Muallaf... technically, Muallaf is not actually about Muallaf... not too sure why's it's titled that way. Maybe the second time round, I'd get it.

First of all, I love the late, great Yasmin Ahmad. Her movies are all inspiring, beautiful and touching.

But... with Muallaf, I felt a bit disconnected. Hmm, how to say this... it's not her best work... but it's still good...

Some of the acting was a bit wooden but the girls (Sharifah Amani and Sharifah Aleysha) and Brian Yap were quite good. Guess Sharifah Amani and good goes hand in hand...