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 Golden Compass

So, does The Golden Compass finally get it right to plug the (industry interpreted) much-needed Christmassy sword and sorcery movie?

Find out at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/12/golden-compass.html

polarsnake SG

Dear daface,

Does your name happen to be Dick Steel?

http://www.imdb.com/user/ur0317399/comments

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

Dustin Hoffman doesn't really quite marquee a movie now, doesn't he? I still remember one of his earlier classics as The Graduate which still remains one of my favourite films ("Do you want me to seduce you?"), and his award winners like Rain Man, Tootsie, Kramer vs Kramer, or even commercial movies like Hero, Hook and Sphere. Lately though I felt he's relegated to support status and bit roles within ensembles, and even though he's the titular character of Edward Magorium, his screen time is still limited, mirroring Magorium's passing of the baton to Natalie Portman's Molly Mahoney the store manager.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/12/mr-magoriums-wonder-emporium.html

daface SG

Originally posted by polarsnake:
Does your name happen to be Dick Steel?

yup, was lazy to normalize all the legacy nicks Razz

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Alvin and the Chipmunks

Or at least that's how the theme song of the cartoon series sounded like, dug out from my subconscious. For those, like me, who have grown up in the 80s watching television cartoons like Mask, Transformers, He-Man, there are those which are less action based, such as Peanuts, and of course, Alvin and the Chipmunks, featuring the trio of Alvin, the de-facto ringleader, Simon the smart one (hence the cliche glasses) and the greedy Theodore.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/12/alvin-and-chipmunks.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: The Warlords

Two's a company and three's a crowd. In movieland, that is almost always true, with no black and white, but with shades of grey instead. Of late, period or martial chivalry movies either look aesthetically beautiful like Zhang Yimou's trilogy of Hero, House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower, or opt for the grittier, more down to earth look with plenty of dirt and grime like Battle of Wits. Director Peter Chan's The Warlords follows the latter with its strained colors and muck on everyone's face, in parallel of the grey that befalls everyone in this tale of a trio's struggles with the System, and amongst themselves.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/12/warlords-tau-ming-chong.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: In the Valley of Elah

I'm not sure why many had loathed Paul Haggis' relatively recent meteoric rise. I had enjoyed most, if not all of his works that I have seen thus far, with his collaboration with Clint Eastwood nabbing Million Dollar Baby a best picture Oscar in 2005, and his own Crash, which was my movie of the year 2005, winning the same award in 2006. I guess with such success, the naysayers will usually be out in full force to make their voices heard, and I thought it's quite sad to have what I deem as stirring work so oft put down because of green eyed monsters.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/12/in-valley-of-elah.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: National Treasure: Book of Secrets

If I may be able to conjure up conspiracy theories of my own, then I will attempt to hypothesis how National Treasure came about to debut on the big screen, based on opportunities which presented itself at the right time. First, the popularity of Dan Brown's controversial The Da Vinci Code, which was made into a movie of its own, but took a tad too long in doing so. Topping the bestseller charts around the world, it made Hollywood execs sit up and realize that wild goose chases and solving riddles and clues do make an interesting, workable formula. Coupled by the fact that the Indiana Jones trilogy (at the time) probably will not have another sequel see the light of day, then the onus is on crafting a tale based on controversies, with Indy Jones tendencies, and chances are a new winner will be born.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/12/national-treasure-book-of-secrets.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Redline

You cannot deny that we have an affinity for speed. That's why movies like Fast and the Furious, Dhoom, Rempit get made to play to the satisfaction of audiences, especially local ones. We live on a tiny island, and I cannot fathom why, for the relative efficiency of the public transportation system, most of us want to get into debt by owning a set of wheels which come with 100% tax when they reach our shores, and the myriad of taxes and bills to pay when operating one. Not only that, the high end sports cars were once quipped by a prominent politician up north that they will never reach fourth gear, lest they reach the sea.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/12/redline.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: My Blueberry Nights

Although I cannot proclaim to have watched all of Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-wai's works, I can say that of those I have seen, they rung some emotional bell within me, and I count 2046 and especially In The Mood For Love as amongst one of my favourite movies of all time. The themes of love, forbidden love and melancholic longing I can identify with, and that makes those films close to heart.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/12/my-blueberry-nights.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Cate Blanchett reprises her role as 16th Century Virgin Queen Elizabeth I in director Shekhar Kapur's sequel of sorts to Elizabeth (199 Cool , which I can't recall if it made it to the local screens. However the DVD of Elizabeth was recently released on DVD here, but you need not have watched that movie because the events that transpire here are after the fact of her ascension to the Throne of England, and you need not be a history buff in order to get up to speed on the events that led up to the opening of the movie. Of course it does help a bit, so if you're choosing not to approach this blind, then you can pop over to Wikipedia for a quick synopsis.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/12/elizabeth-golden-age.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Breath (Soom)

Of the limited number of Korean auteur Kim Ki-duk's movies, I have only seen a handful of them, and mostly they are the relatively contemporary movies, like The Bow, 3-Iron and Time. The feeling I got from them all is consistent - that it's not your usual storytelling, as he seemed more often than not to obscure any intended message, or meaning in his tales, much like searching for an Easter Egg, or worse, that needle in the haystack to get something out of it. If I can summarize his movies in a statement, then it'll be to expect something that's totally unexpected, though not necessary always in a good way.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/12/breath-soom.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Across the Universe

Viva la Beatles! We're familiar with the many musicals that have come out of late, either being remade from stage to screen, or updated for today's era, the latest being Hairspray. And a musical made up entirely of songs by the Beatles, but not sung by the Beatles themselves? While it is easy to make a movie based on songs by the "it" group of the time (Spice World anyone?) and starring the singers themselves so that there won't be a nightmare in casting actors who can sing, or worse, start to mutilate the lyrics, how about throwing that mantra out of the window?

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/12/across-universe.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: I Am Legend

Out of curiosity I went to look up Will Smith's filmography, and realized that since Michael Bay's Bad Boys in 1995, he had averaged just one movie a year, most of them being box office successes save for blips like Wild Wild West, and in films spanning a wide genre from biopics to romantic comedy to action and drama. Today his name alone on the marquee can open a movie, and I Am Legend is probably a true test of that drawing power, because for the most parts, his Robert Neville is the last man on Earth.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/12/i-am-legend.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Dan in Real Life

Comedian Steve Carell burst into mainstream prominence as the world's best known 40 Year Old Virgin, and popularity grew with his The Office US series. But a quick blip on the radar with Evan Almighty made us wonder if he will be able to sustain a series of successes given what I think is a dearth of funny comedians to hit the big screen of late - output seemed to have slowed a bit from the likes of Mike Myers, Ben Stiller (The Heartbreak Kid was not exactly really funny), Will Farell and even Jim Carrey, with whom Carell will be collaborating with in an animated feature in next year's Dr Horton Hears a Who.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/12/dan-in-real-life.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Michael Clayton

I can't recall the last time I watched a satisfying lawyer related movie, and it brings me back to the time in the 90s where the John Grisham novels were being rushed to be made into films, starting with The Firm, and somehow stopping abruptly after the release of The Runaway Jury. While the Grisham novels always have a top lawyer with just morals, this one has almost everyone being a shady lawyer battling against one another's wits and wills.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/12/michael-clayton.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Vexille

This year had perhaps seen a bumper crop of anime movies making it to the theatres, with the likes of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Paprika, Brave Story, Doraemon, and now, a science fiction mecha genre anime by the producer of Appleseed, Fumihiko Sori.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/12/vexille.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Mission Sex Control

First of all, let's get our minds out of the gutter. The title already provided you a clue with the keyword here being "Control", meaning this is no free-wheeling "mission sex" comedy with expectations of copulation being put in the spotlight. Rather, this turns out to be educational (for a while) and comedic in playing on misconceptions, before turning the wheel to become an all out melodramatic movie.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/12/mission-sex-control-jal-sarabose.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Eastern Promises

David Cronenberg's previous offering, A History of Violence, was hailed by many as a work of genius and made it to the mainstream paper's top movie of 2005. But I thought the original story in the graphic novel form was far superior, as he injected his own take for the second half of the film, which earned William Hurt an Academy Award nomination for his role as a gangland boss. Those in tuned with Cronenberg's works will know that his movies are usually warped in certain ways, but with A History of Violence, and now Eastern Promises, it seemed that they have become easier to grasp, and perhaps even more mainstream in its appeal.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/12/eastern-promises.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem

My very first encounter with Aliens Versus Predator, was actually a coin operated arcade game some more than 10 years back. For 20c for 3-5 chances (depending on how the owner configured the machine), you can choose between a 2 Predator Warriors, or 2 humans, to go up against an Alien infested land, where you score points with multiple Alien kills, and get to use some of the cool weapons (always like those killer discs) and combo moves to finish off opponents. Needless to say, who would want to use the human characters, when you can play Predator?

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/12/aliens-vs-predator-requiem.html

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