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: Assembly

Feng Xiaogang's Assembly was the opening film at last year's Pusan International Film Festival, and tickets were sold out in record time once they were made available online. Such is the faith (or curiosity) of the new film from the director who brought us movies like World Without Thieves, and martial arts Hamlet The Banquet. When you think of Chinese directors making a movie based out of Chinese history, you can't help but imagine the massive amount of propaganda that get so blatantly infused into the story and especially the dialogue. But here, Feng managed to bring about a movie which goes beyond the usual ra-ra, and shows us that a movie with universal themes can also come out from what is essentially a war movie based upon China's tumultuous era after WWII.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/01/assembly-ji-jie-hao.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Reservation Road

You wonder what goes through the minds of those involved in hit and run accidents. In that split second after impact, you are presented a choice, and your life will change, one way or the other. One probably has to consider whether to stop and render assistance, and in doing so owning up to the accident, but having a chance to save a life if the circumstances allow for it. Or to hope that nobody saw you did what you did, and bolt. Negligent drivers, either through drink driving, or being distracted while on the road, probably won't elicit much sympathy, especially so from the family of the victim, and in Reservation Road, powerful drama is weaved amongst the characters on both sides of the hit and run equation.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/01/reservation-road.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Love in the Time of Cholera

The title will probably elicit the first reaction from you - the number of words, and whether this is yet another Painted Veil, which is also a love story set during the time of a cholera outbreak. Being a period movie as well, the lack of recognizable names might not serve as a plus point for those looking out for stars, but with Atonement taking its own sweet time in getting released here, this movie might serve as a substitute while awaiting for the real McCoy to arrive.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/01/love-in-time-of-cholera.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Le Grand Chef

A romantic comedy about food should evoke some hunger pangs, as well as some mouthwatering oohs and aahs for the sheer visuals of food that you'll probably swear you can smell and taste, if done right. However, the first reactions from Le Grand Chef is "eeeeeeeeeeeee" followed by plenty of reeling from the graphic nature of fresh sashimi preparation. The opening scene is the preparation of fresh golden blowfish, where you'll see the fish still gasping in its last stages of life, snuffed through a deft decapitation of its head, followed by the fins, before skinning it in one fall swoop, disembowelment and the slicing of its meat so thinly that it's translucent.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/01/le-grand-chef.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Linger

A romance movie may be simple to make, but also amongst the most difficult. Almost every other movie out there has a romantic angle in it, and if the movie is one that has it as a primary, it either be something jolly good to appeal to the masses with a strong storyline, or be differentiated through the many gimmicks like time travel or the supernatural, or contain charismatic and beautiful leads to shoulder the movie.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/01/linger-hu-die-fei.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: American Gangster

Ridley Scott's American Gangster has many similar parallels to Derek Yee's Protege, in that it's a story about the scourge of drugs, and each containing the respective insights into the entire production, processing and distribution processes, stemming again from material sources in South East Asia. While the latter is a fictional account, American Gangster is based on the true story of Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), the black drug lord whose meteoric rise to power was deemed incredulous because of race and colour, and the story of the detective Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) whose team had broken through the complex web of mob dealings to take down the gangsters, as well as their corrupt own.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/01/american-gangster.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: One Missed Call

One Missed Call gets filed amongst Hollywood Remakes of Japanese Horror that shouldn't have been green lighted in the first place. I suppose with the likes of so many of such remakes, the supposed winning formula would be to adopt the story, slap some relatively known actors in it, and employ every trick in the Hollywood horror book, and expect the box offices to go ka-ching! Wrong! One Missed Call happens to be One Big Bore!

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/01/one-missed-call.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: 3:10 to Yuma

It's been a long wait for the remake of 3:10 to Yuma to finally reach our cinemas. In fact, the Code 1 DVD is already out, and I thought it was probably missed opportunity if there are interested folks out there who decide to get the DVD instead of catching it on the big screen. I do not understand why the need for the delay, contrary to the belief that it is a Western movie which might be an unpopular genre to go into, and of course, I can only recall a handful which made it to cinemas here in recent times - Dances with Wolves, Unforgiven, Tombstone and Wyatt Earp - the last 2 being movies about the legendary lawman and the shootout at OK Corral.

http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/01/310-to-yuma.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: The Mist

With a title like The Mist, you probably won't be faulted if the first thing in your mind is that it's one of those run of the mill horror movies, like The Fog and The Haze (ok, so I made the last one up, it's actually a recently made short film competing in Berlin). And the trailers do suggest strange shenanigans happening inside a mist shrouded town, so in the hands of any mediocre storyteller, it's so easy to make them go Boo. Based on the novella by Stephen King, The Mist turned out to be unexpectedly excellent, with audiences whooping for joy both at the right and wrong places.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/01/mist.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Cloverfield

In recent history, Hollywood had tried this stunt before. Remember the Godzilla of 1998? Audiences were teased with a tail here, a roar there, and the filmmakers pretty much had the monster kept under tight wraps. Until it opened, and because it failed to live up to its hype, and didn't meet everyone's expectations of how the good old Japanese lizard would look like and behave, it tanked at the box office. Now, Cloverfield adopted similar strategies in having us hear a roar, and to witness its destructive powers, without a visual clue of what it looked like. Did it deliver?

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/01/cloverfield.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: The Flock

Hong Kong directors crossing over to Hollywood to make movies is nothing new, with the temporary exodus of the likes of Tsui Hark, John Woo, Ringo Lam in the 90s. From their collective output, only a few movies (or may I say just one?) made an impact at the box office. The Andrew Lau and Alan Mak partnership has been a tour de force in recent HK cinematic history, especially with their now famous Infernal Affairs trilogy which was remade into Martin Scorsese's The Departed, so it's no surprise when Hollywood comes knocking on the door.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/01/flock.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: 27 Dresses

Katherine Heigl probably captured the imagination of the many geeky boys out there when she gave Seth Logan's Ben Stone a one night stand in Judd Apatow's Knocked Up. It's a ridiculous premise some might add, but it propelled her to mass consciousness as the beautiful girl who would, and provided her an elevation of status she would recently decide to loathe. Anyway, all is forgiven, and she's back to grace our screens in a role that demonstrates you can attempt to dress her up in a sack, and even that would still make her look oh-so-sexy.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/01/27-dresses.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Trade

The plight of innocent victims of human trafficking for sex has moved filmmakers enough to make movies addressing the issue. The last two in recent memory that I've watch are Your Name is Justine, and Lilya-4ever, both which put the spotlight specifically on the characters created, highlighting the abuse they receive and exposing some of the tricks that the conmen exploit in order to target and thereafter control their prey. Given that the viewpoint of the entire unfortunate ordeal from the perspective of the victims have been portrayed, and is easy and turning the same wheel if done again, Trade takes on a more macroscopic look, while still maintaining a finger in a more personalized tale, in order to ramp up the human drama and emotions.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/01/trade.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Mr. Average

Mr Average is quite unlike The Truman Show. In the latter, Jim Carrey's titular character is bred and born for the role as the reality television star who lives a lie, and that product placement is but part and parcel to insert advertisements for the long running show. In Mr Average, it has quite a lot to say about polls and opinions, and boiled down into becoming a predictable romantic tale.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/01/mr-average-comme-tout-le-monde.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

I can't imagine myself being stuck and trapped in my own body, where it becomes a prison cell. Unable to move about freely having lost all my psycho-motor skills, with muscles refusing to obey my mental will, and being robbed of all ability to communicate, save for the movement of an eye and an eyelid. You want to scream and tell everyone of the pain you're suffering from, and you yearn to respond normally to questions and interact plainly with people. You try, but you just can't.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/01/diving-bell-and-butterfly-le-scaphandre.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Rambo

This is yet another Sylvester Stallone comeback movie, which in fact was conceived before the return of Rocky Balboa. On one hand, I find it kind of sorry that Sly had to dust off old cobwebs and revive his iconic heroes from the past, reliving his glory days. On the other, it made for an interesting situation to see if the characters of his can withstand the test of time. With Rocky Balboa, he went back to basics and was in part quite reminiscent of the original Rocky. And Rambo 4 no doubt had been drastically updated for today's audience.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/01/rambo-rambo-4-singapore-title.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Atonement

So now we know why the young must be protected from vulgarities and from sexual scenes, because with vivid imagination, they could probably be quick to jump to conclusions, being unable to grasp and fully understand the situation at hand, nor the gravity of their actions, especially when they're shooting from the hip.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/01/atonement.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Gone Baby Gone

While Ben Affleck has gotten a number of flak for his acting ability or lack thereof, there is no denying that his directorial debut with Gone Baby Gone deserves the accolades bestowed upon this work, as he directs younger brother Casey in a tale about the seedier side of private investigation, but stripped of noir elements and immersed totally in the wheeling and dealings with plenty of grey.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/01/gone-baby-gone.html

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

The long title of 10 words strike you initially, and besides having a mouthful of a title, the duration too is at a whopping 160 minutes, of which I can humbly suggest to trim it down to a more manageable 120 minutes.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/01/assassination-of-jesse-james-by-coward.html

daface SG

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was slated to have been released end of next month. Then came the relatively strong opening in the West late last year, followed by nominations and wins in the Golden Globes, that it has now been bumped up for release this week, prior to the 3-way fight that the Asian movies will put up in the upcoming Lunar New Year week. I thought it was a no-brainer having to release this early as Johnny Depp is already a household name here thanks to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, and here he dons eye shadow and retains the bad teeth to play the titular character. Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/01/sweeney-todd-demon-barber-of-fleet.html

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