A Nutshell Review by daface

last SG · 2005-05-29T10:42:43+00:00

A Nutshell Review: I Hate Valentine’s DayI haven’t seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding from start to end, but from what I gathered from scenes, Nia Vardalos is qui...

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: The Drummer

Anything with drums, and I am there. The beats of drums in any music always appeal to me (no prizes for guessing I'm a drum and bass fan), because I suppose it's fairly easy to express your mood to beats, and this expression can be done through anything that gives you that satisfying clang, and more so when you need to vent frustrations out in a relatively safe manner by hitting out at something inanimate, without personal injury of course.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/10/drummer.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Mr. Woodcock

With a name like W-o-o-d-c-o-c-k (roll it off your tongue slowly for maximum effect), you'd have expect the jokes to come fast and furious about the appendage. Well there are, however, the best parts of Mr Woodcock are not the sexual innuendos, but come from the various gymnasium scenes, where Jasper Woodcock (Billy Bob Thorton) the PE teacher runs his classes like a sadistic drill sergeant, and all the misfits tremble in fear and loathe as he puts them through the paces, with physical, mental and emotional abuse dished out in deadpan manner. The filmmakers know this, and set the bar high enough from the get go, but only for the movie to spiral in the general southwards direction.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/10/mr-woodcock.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: The Brave One

I'm not sure why The Brave One got no love. Perhaps one could have been jaded by so many revenge themed movies, where things get taken into one's own hands because we believe revenge is a dish best served cold. From the martial arts genre to stylized violent movies like Tarantino's Kill Bill double, I'd warrant a guess that anything more rooted to the reality of today, and in the movie's forced allusion in making a statement about the Iraqi War, will make one roll their eyes in disbelief.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/10/brave-one.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Hunting and Gathering

It's Audrey Tautou, and ever since Amelie, I am of the opinion that Singaporeans have an affinity for the pint sized actress, and her box office draw here is fairly strong. Count me in as one of the fans who will lap up her cinematic outings, good or bad, so long as our heroine gets the opportunity to shine on screen.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/10/hunting-and-gathering-ensemble-cest.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Pleasure Factory

If Amsterdam has her infamous fish tanks and Bangkok has her Patpong, I'm sure there must be something fascinating enough for Singapore's own red light district Geylang to be used as the backdrop, and its nighttime inhabitants becoming characters featured in a feature length film. After all, Bugis Street of old (not the sterile shopping mall it has now become) had been made in a 1996 Singapore movie entitled Bugis Street. But what came across as inspired from true stories that originates from within that area leaves much to be desired. After all, surely we know of some of these stories if we have friends who have visited the area (*ahem* if not yourself) and lived to tell of their conquests, or countless others that you can read of anonymously, courtesy of the Sammyboy forums, and those are somewhat more honest and to the point that what Pleasure Factory depicted.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/10/pleasure-factory-kuai-le-gong-chang.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Superbad

Many have been lauding high accolades on this teen comedy to be the best thing since American Pie, and guess what, it's true! Before you roll your eyes at yet another teenage and/or sex comedy, with desperate nerds hatching diabolical plans to get laid, Superbad comes across as a breath of fresh air really, given that it has a cast of unknowns, thus free of any expectations to deliver, which thankfully it does.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/10/superbad.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Lars and the Real Girl

I'd bet almost everyone during their childhood years would have interacted with their toys somehow, be it outwardly verbal, or playing it all in the mind. Conversations with dolls, teddy bears, or even with G.I. Joe himself beating up Cobra Commander, these are stuff of what a rich imagination would be made of, breathing a form of consciousness onto inanimate objects.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/10/lars-and-real-girl.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Evening

Based on a novel by Susan Minot, Evening is a story about complex relationships, love, and family. It's drizzled with deep regret, about letting the one walk away, of not having the courage to live out the life you want, constantly allowing societal notions and norms, or how you want others to perceive you, take the unfortunate precedence over what really matters

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/10/evening.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Halloween

I had not watched the original Halloween, so sadly I can't do a comparison of Rob Zombie's reimagination of the horror classic by John Carpenter, about a psychotic killer hell bent on a mindless rampage when he escapes from the mental institution, with his doctor hot on his heels. Michael Myers ranks up there with Freddy Krueger (of the Nightmare series on Elm Street), Jason (of Friday the 13th) and LeatherFace (of Texas Chainsaw Massacre), and of late, these characters have been on the recycling mill, with the latter having a prequel made, and the former two combining forces in a movie.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/10/halloween.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: The Seeker: The Dark is Rising

The Seeker: The Dark is Rising, no doubt being based on a children's book series, could have come up with a better sounding title than to reinforce the impression rightly that it's for the young ones, with nary any bit of sophistication. Telling the story as is in a straight forward manner, it's filled with tons of cliche thrown in from start to end, and while it does have its moments, on the whole it felt very familiar, with similar plot elements from various fantasy movies contributing to this emotional and action flatliner.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/10/seeker-dark-is-rising.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Rendition

Think of it as an extreme form of detention without trial. Without commenting and taking a side on the US Foreign Policy, the process of Extraordinary Rendition involves taking persons suspected of terrorist activities to a foreign country, an opposite to an extradition if you wish, to a place where torture is not a crime but a means to illicit information. Instead of staining your soil with blood of potentially innocent parties, you do so on foreign land where such tactics are accepted interrogation techniques.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/10/rendition.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Stardust

I approached Stardust with apprehension, because of late, fairy tale movies like Pan's Labyrinth, Mirrormask and Brothers Grimm somehow didn't appeal to me, even though they are helmed by acclaimed directors, and critically praised by many. Moreover, the movie had premiered in the US for ages now, and the trailer has been played too often over here, while waiting for the movie to make its debut, that it actually looked quiet tired.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/10/stardust.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Unrest

This turned out to be a horror weekend, if I had opted to watch One Last Breath yesterday, a Japanese horror movie set in a hospital. Instead, I had chosen the Undead today, which also takes place in a hospital, not in the morgue but at a lab for anatomical lessons, where would be surgeons obtain their baptism of fire from those who had decided to donate their bodies for scientific causes. The gimmick (if I can call it that way) of this movie, is that it touts itself having to be the very first to include real dead bodies, aka cadavers, in film. That already gave you a natural queasy feeling that what's shown on screen, are actual bodies, and you wonder how the filmmakers got away with ethical issues and the likes.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/10/unrest.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: The Ferryman

I have enjoyed limited movie offerings from New Zealand, with the likes of the romantic comedy Sione's Wedding and horror comedy Black Sheep, and for my horror double bill this weekend, I wouldn't have wanted to miss The Ferryman.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/10/ferryman.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: The 11th Hour

I guess we can attest that the local weather of late has gone bonkers. More often than note, we have incredibly hot and humid weather with bright sunshine one half of the day, before the skies turn grey and piss heavily on us. We've seen even more occurences of water spouts emerging just off our shore, and we've done the boogie when neighbouring countries suffer jolts in the earth, from which we will feel tremors enough for us to abandon our high rise buildings. While we're relatively buffered from direct adverse weather effects, not a day goes by without reading or knowing about strange weather phenomenon from around the world.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/10/leonardo-dicaprio-presents-11th-hour.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: The Game Plan

American football team Boston Rebels' star quarterback Joe Kingman (The Rock) has only two loves in his life - Football and Elvis Presley. Like all successful sports superstars at the top of their game, he's living the good life, with his swanky penthouse apartment fitted with the latest luxuries, a roadster that screams "Mo Jo(e)", and endless parties with beautiful women. But alas one fine day he finds little Peyton Kelly (Madison Pettis) at his doorstep, claiming to be his daughter, and thus putting the brakes in his fast life.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/11/game-plan.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Triangle

The much awaited Hong Kong movie Triangle has finally hit our shores. It's an interesting project, given that 3 HK directors - Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam and Johnnie To - are combining forces to tell a story in the "exquisite corpse" style, where each one takes over from where the other left off, each injecting their own narrative style and spin to the characters and story. It's friendly one-upmanship between the directors in their bout to demonstrate their innovativeness, spontaneity and resourcefulness, but what comes through is clearly a mixed bag, expectedly so since you have three distinct creative inputs.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/11/triangle-tie-saam-gok.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Saw IV

For fans of the Saw trilogy, you'd thought that the end of the third installment had wrapped up the franchise quite neatly, and there's absolutely no way another movie can be made except to go backwards in time with prequels. Well, surprise surprise, director Darren Lynn Bousman brings forth the fourth movie of the franchise, and so long as it continues to churn profits, you can bet your last dollar this isn't the last you see of the Saw movies. To be cautious, here's a little spoiler warning for you if you decide to read further. And one reminder, please refresh your memory of the earlier Saw movies, especially Parts II and III, before you go for 4.

Continues (with spoilers) at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/11/saw-iv.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Sugar & Spice

Girls are made of sugar and spice and all things nice, but of course there are those laced with wasabi that will hit you when you least expect it to. Based on the novel by Eimi Yamada, Sugar & Spice is not your conventional romantic drama, not that it's because it's not the usual boy-meets-girl-they-hook-up-boy-loses-girl-boy-tries-to-win-girl-back kind of movie, but because it takes a long hard look at a certain condition, and that's the rebound.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/11/sugar-spice-fmi-zekka.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Lions for Lambs

Lions for Lambs is Tom Cruise's first movie for his United Artists after being given the boot from Paramount Pictures. And instead of putting himself in yet another one man show, he combines forces and shares the spotlight with a stellar cast comprising Robert Redford, who also takes on directing duties, and Meryl Streep, in a story that touches on quite realistically on current affairs, based on scribe's Matthew Michael Carnahan's take on the entire political situation in the USofA currently, with special focus put into its war on terror.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/11/lions-for-lambs.html

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