One of the most anticipated summer-released blockbuster this year, I could really say that Black Knight could not disappoint, simply because:
1) It’s by Christopher Nolan, one director whom I have good regards.
2) Christian Bale is perhaps the best Batman so far.
3) Heather Ledger redesigned the Joker.

After watching the film just now, I realized how much the film has to offer besides those initial expectations. Just like the first installation, Dark Knight approach is to make give a humane face to the characters. Yes, they are still larger than life, but you get to see their believes, which the rest of the Batman films never really got that across to the audience as impactful as this one; the character Batman relies on his history; the Joker decided to whip all history off and created his own memories; Two-Face history and the reason why he is so, is revealed before us; Rachel Dawes etches herself in our memory.

The storyline is not paper thin, like how most summer flicks would expectedly be. Character developments are reflected, unfolded and influenced by events that happened or influenced by the characters themselves. Sometimes, it’s subtle (Alfred Pennyworth’s decision to burn Rachel’s letter to Bruce), sometimes it’s apparently in-your-face (Joker’s mad social experiment and other evil deeds) and sometimes, it’s choice, or the lack of it (Harvey ‘Two-Face’ decision to leave things to chance).

Dark, complex and disturbing, which is why I would need to catch it again; I missed the opening bits of the film and the whole experience is just not complete, like attending a Chinese wedding dinner late and missed the Cold Dish and Sharkfin Soup and had to give the dessert a miss as you need to leave early, and you still need to pay the ‘full price’ ang pao… if you get what I mean.

Go catch it at some big good cinema and that’s all the summer blockbuster you need to watch this year.

We are living in a world of strangers. We don’t know who our neighbours are anymore. We are connected by the Net, by IM, we chat and read blogs of people from all across the world. We know each other, but yet we don’t know each other. We are lovers, but yet strangers.

It’s baffling, the whole we live in… but sometimes, all it takes, is just a silly dance, to connect us all, to make us somewhat understand each other, even if it’s just for awhile.

Pangea Day starts at 18:00 GMT on May 10, 2008.

If you have been following the latest survivor series, you’d see how the original alliance was still very strong- Fans vs. Favourites. Even after the jumble, the pack remained loyal, at least for the losing team, where the Fans members were being voted out one by one. The Fans underestimated that alliance, when two of them decided to vote with the Favourites, until the final stage, when only one- Erik- left.

HOWEVER, Erik managed to pull the right string, when he told Ozzy- the obvious strong member of the Favourites team- that he’d once a target of being eliminated. Ego Ozzy took the opportunity at the tribal council and managed to turn the table around, and Ami (of Favourites) was voted out. Shocking, but a relief to Erik.

But I would think that Erik is not out of the red yet. But then again, with the merger in the next episode, it was a certainly a good news to Erik that he was spared the vote, as he would be back with the support of the Fans, unless of course, the Fans had gone their separate ways…

On the very facade, PTA offered something very different this time round. He threw away the whole cast assemble, he climbed out of the Valley and instead of the whole plain, he’s focusing on one particular cactus- Daniel Plainview.

Loosely adapted from Upton Sinclair’s “Oil!”, the brilliantly titled film gave audience somewhat different cinematic experience. The strong soundtrack gave a pendulum momentum to the images which would be too dull on their own, though not compelling enough for me to look forward to what would happen next. This is pretty much PTA, which I appreciate as I allow the film to take me on the ride. This is also done in another way; PTA introduces new plot as we go along- the long-lost brother, the killing of the preacher, and so on.

PTA has always cast a single powerhouse in his films- Gwyneth Paltrow, Mark Wahlberg, Tom Cruise & Adam Sandler- and this time round, Daniel Day-Lewis is a good choice to tie up the film properly, whom without the film would just fall apart, especially so that Blood revolves around this particular character. This character is made so compelling that he pretty much is all PTA needed (that’s the reason to throw the usual casts away?).

PTA has this incredible ability of changing the direction of his films without changing the tempo for you would think it’s befitting. In Magnolia, he made the whole cast broke into a sing-a-long (from drama to musical), in Punch Drunk-Love, he created a character capable of both psychopatic action of threatening tugs and whacking things, and lovingly devoted to loving. In Blood, he changed the whole mood to a pretty comical one when Daniel was to be baptised. Genius.

As much as I love what PTA does, I must admit that I didn’t quite like Blood as much as I wanted. I’m not sure why, because after thinking through, the film actually grows in me. Perhaps it takes a second viewing for me to appreciate PTA’s effort better. Perhaps I really should have just watched it without expectation- which i thought I didn’t impose. In any case, I do believe that Blood deserves its Oscar nomination, but not the win; having watched No Country for Old Men, I thought that was a more brilliant film to win.

I certainly look forward to more works from PTA. Blood is ok, and I require more time for this piece to grow in me.

I’m feeling a bit excited over this.

Can’t wait, can’t wait…

Did you watch the part of Desperate Housewives, where Bree has checked herself in a lunatic house but couldn’t get out? And what she did was to throw sands at the doctor to escape. The scene was that she waited for the guard to enter and she quickly grabbed hold of the glass door, and thus made her way out.

Now, if you would have notice, there’s a sign at the door. And it says: Press the button to exit.

For those who have a version recorded/ downloaded/ borrowed/ whatever, do take a second look at the blooper scene.

I just love these ads…

If the above cannot be accessed, please click here.

I’ve always been a fan of Chris Cunningham who has made damn good music videos.  Though he has been lying very low nowadays, I sure hope to see more of his works in the future, and I’ll be anticipating them, cause I know I won’t be disappointed…

Fine… Italy won the World Cup.

8-)

But at least they got the butthead from Zidane.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a supporter of France, I just thought that Italy won’t be team to lift the cup.

Anyway, I’m not sure a lot of you there wanna learn about singing high pitch.  Get the wonderous tip from this fella:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JG-Wp0-H_sY&eurl=

Very profound right?

Yup, Robbie Williams’ infamous animated music video is available here.  I myself have not seen the uncensored/ unedited version before this, what’s more, the original MV actually contains outtakes at the end of the clip.  So enjoy!

(Wanted to post the lyrics here, but nah! Anyone can just goggle that out easily to sing-along…)

Have you seen it?

It’s being considered perhaps the most famous short film, and anyone who has interest in the cinema will or would have seen it.  I was Un Chien Andalou virgin until my film course professor showed it at his lecture.  When I was first told that it’s a black-and-white short film, I thought, great! this won’t take too long… (You see, I haven’t developed the sense that old BW films can be really good films then…yet)  But the opening sequence grabbed the whole class and we all sat anticipatingly, including myself.  Yup, we were thinking, so what’s going to happen next.

But nothing really happened next, for there’s no plot in the story.  We were engaged in the film imagery, and how the film provoked certain feelings and emotions in us.

I have a special fondness of this short film, not just because of its no-plot narration, but also it’s a work of art of Salvador Dali.  He has worked with others to create special sequences in films, but what I hope to look for is Destino.

Read more about Un Chien Andalou at IMDB or at Wikipedia.

Download Un Chien Andalou here. (You’ll need to search elsewhere for a version with English subtitle though…)

Trivia: I believe that the insect with the skull featured in The Silence of the Lambs was inspired by this short film… 

And btw, you can download quite alot of classic films at www.achieve.org such as Buster Keaton’s, Charlie Chaplin’s, The Lost World, His Girl Friday and more.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

From the people who brought you Tak Giu (read here), Zo Peng is the latest effort, which, again, can be viewed free- this time off youtube.com:

Please ppl, if you like it, or you have some constructive criticism- or even lousy comments- do visit here.

All the best Jacen Tan

After such long time, Basic Instinct 2 finally got made and wil be released by the end of the month.

Sharon Stone was poisonous in the first installment, but with age catching up, it will take a lot more to exert sexual attraction on screen. While watching for its release, take a look at the trailer.

Updated December 15, 2005 @ 19:17:

Come next year…

we’ll start off with Steven Spielberg’s heavy duty docu-film called Munich. To be released on 6 January 2006, the trailer’s available here.

For those can’t wait for to see Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (which opens 7 July 2006, trailer here.) and also Pirates of the Caribbean 3 (which opens in 2007), maybe you wanna catch him in The Libertine come 13 Jan 2006. And on the same date, The New World opens; it’s basically a film inspired by John Smith and Pocahontas.

For scary shit, complete off your Final Destination trilogy on 10 February 2006. Watch the trailer here.

For animation fan, Ice Age 2 is coming around on 31 March 2006. Watch the trailer here if you can’t wait. Monster House opens on 12 July 2006. Trailer’s available here.

And you thought Scary Movie ends at 3? Think again; the 4th will come around on 14 April 2006.

Mission Impossible 3 opens on 5 May 2006. Teaser trailer reportedly will be released with King Kong 2005.

X Men 3 (better known as X3) opens on 26 May 2006. Trailer is available. Enough said.

M. Night Shyamalan’s Lady in the Water opens on 21 July 2006.

Perhaps the mother-of-all-waits is Da Vinci Code, which opens on 19 May 2006. A teaser was released previously, but now, the trailer is now available.

Some other films in 2006 include:
Beowulf & Grendel
Edison

And locally, Yasmin Ahmad had announced that Gubra will travel to Singapore first in February, and a month later, opens in Malaysia.

Good film year ahead?

Kim Ki-duk gives his fine gentle brush strokes to 3-Iron, keeping silent as he paints, for he does not need to utter a word of explanation.

That’s how I see the director’s approach. He brought filmmaking to an extreme end, where he’d eliminated the need for speech almost altogether. I was told once, film is first and foremost a media that records moving images, as oppose to photograph capturing static images. So, on film, the action captured need to tell stories. Sure, we have sound now, but that can merely be viewed as enhancement, just like special effects.

Both the protagonists never really utter a word (okay, the female actress gave a scream and said “I love you”, but that’s bout it…), but they speak alot through the looks in their eye, through their action. Tae-suk goes around sneaking quietly into homes when the residents were off on vacation. He cooks himself meals. He repairs anything that’s broken. He does the laundry. And he takes photographs with the residents, by standing in front of their potraits and self-snapping with a digital camera. And he meets Sun-hwa (watch the film lar to see how they meet…). And together, they embark on a journey of vagabonds.

It’s not a difficult film- pretty mysterious, yes, but not difficult. I was mesmerized by Tae-suk ghostly elegance and charisma as he go about with his daily life, as well as when in the prison. And he opened Sun-hwa’s eyes to see a world that she’s glad to step into. Hauntingly subtle and beautiful film.

I’m giving it 9/10.

If you are M. Night Shyamalan’s fan, perhaps you’ve heard of his latest film, Lady In The Water. The trailer can be found here.

I missed it, and I regret.

I managed to catch Flight Plan (Robert Schwentke,2005) this evening at MidValley.

I didn’t expect it to be a very good film, based on reviews I’ve seen so far, but nevertheless, I thought it would’nt go all wrong since one of my favourite actress is taking charge in this thriller. I thought it was quite a nice films, though it should’ve gone more in-depth into the architecture of the plane and the world of pilots and air stewardess. This film reminds me a whole lot of Panic Room (David Fincher, 2002) with the mother-daughter relationship going on. However, Panic Room had the whole house coming alive, pretty much due to the camera effect. The plane in Flight Plan however is rather…dead.

Foster delivered a brilliant performance nonetheless, but the rest of the cast are pretty dimensionless. Peter Sarsgaard tried very hard to tone down his character in the first half of the film, but it just wasn’t good enough. I was quite sure he’s something to do with the daughter’s disappearance from the time he made his appearance. The same could pretty much be said about the rest of the cast because it seems just to platonic- the Arabs are made suspects, but you can almost be certain that it’s a screenplay trick; the pilot is so hard-headed that you are quite sure he’ll just have to say “Sorry” at the end. The cast themselves pretty much made the film predictable. It seems like Foster was pretty much this in her performance- syiok sendiri.

At the end of the day, nevertheless I enjoyed this film, simply because Jodie Foster’s in it.

I would give this film a 6/10.

For these past few years, we’ve seen many Asian horror films flooding the cinema here and abroad. It’s not something that coincidental because it seems that many Asian filmmakers have finally hit upon something that has universal language- fear. And with that, it has opened many opportunity doors of getting Asian films noticed especially at international stage.

Personally, I regard The Ring a.k.a Ringu(Nakata Hideo, 1998) as the master of all Asian horror films as it marks the pinnacle start of the popularity of this genre. Perhaps it’s the non-expectation don’t-know-what-this-film-is-all-about move to watch it alone when I was walking along Orchard Road in Singapore. It gave me such a fright that I had turn my computer monitor in my room around so as not to face my bed- scared the shit out of me while I was sleeping…

Following that, strings of horror come about, popularly from Japan, Korea, Hong Kong as well as Thailand. Some of these films have been so popular that they were re-made in Hollywood style. Slowly, besides urban tales, the Asian Horror Films spread its wings into Shocking Cinema and gore realm, pop culture and drill deeper into legendary stories. I remember Nang Nak from Thailand which is based on a folk ghost story. Then, we have Ichi The Killer from Takashi Miike. Battle Royale serves to numb its audience. Strings of B-Grade ghost and terror films from Hong Kong laced with sexual content got churned out.

At our local door, Pontianak Harum Sedap Malam a.k.a. Pontianak by Suhaimi Baba has set an exemplary lead with it’s earning of more than RM3mil while the lead actress, Maya Karin grabbed the Best Actress Award at the Asia Pacific Film Festival 2004 in Japan. This year, we had Pontianak Menjerit and Potret Mistik, both filmed at Fraser’s Hill. Come next year 2006, we’ll see more horror/ ghost/ scary films, namely Gong by Sandosh Kesavan (which will be filmed in Indonesia entirely), Puaka Tebing Biru by Osman Ali and the sequel to Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam. (I’m not sure if Susuk is another horror film to be released in 2006.)

Our local filmmakers are indeed trying to bank on the lure of horror films, trying to break into the international arena. Same goes for our neighbouring country Singapore. After embarking on ‘The Eye’ and so forth, the latest offering is ‘The Maid’ by Kelvin Tong who was said to have gone mainstream with this film.

Really, it’s quite attractive to make horror films nowadays. The appeal especially to the bewildered Westerners means big buck. A Singaporean filmmaker once remarked that at film markets at film festivals, once buyers get to know that you are from ‘one of the Asian countries’, they will gladly ask if you’ve horror films to offer. Djinn’s Return To Pontianak from Singapore was repackaged as Voodoo Nightmare in the U.S. for the video market.

Next up, Red Shoes showing on the local screens now…

I remember watching The Smurfs cartoon on TV when I was a little kid. I enjoyed it alot, so much so that I got my parents to buy one of those sticker books, and I would keep buying those stickers-in-a-packet. Maybe it’s the perversely hypnotising tune, but I wouldn’t really miss it during the weekends back then…

And a little bird (different from Jeff’s) told me, a feature film project has been hatched to bring The Smurfs on to the big screen come 2008. However, it will be in 3D and CGI animated. I hope the magic’s still there…

Wondering if Voltron, Thundercats, etc etc will be brought back to life…

These two films, which will be released in Dec 2005 caught my interest.

Memoirs of a Geisha (Rob Marshall.2005) has garnered quite some buzzes when the project was first announced a few years back. Spielberg was set to make the film, but he passed the baton then, though he stayed on as the producer eventually. Madonna was rumoured to have voiced her interest in playing one of the main role in the film, but eventually didn’t get it. Mineko Iwasaki sued Author Golden for breach of contract in 2001. And finally, when the production took off, the film was heavily criticized for casting non-Japanese in main roles.

The problem I suppose is that the book itself is a fiction (based on very facts) from a Western point of view. Many ideas were certainly distorted as the Westerners do not share the same values and perception of Asians. What do then is expected from the film which is based on the book? I would think that the film would turn out pretty good, but I’m not expecting to learn about the Geisha culture through it.

Brokeback Mountain is another adaptation- this is based on a short story by Annie Proulx, published in The New Yorker 1997- that created some buzz recently. The theme of this film was highlighted and it got many thinking: is the general audience ready for such homosexuality drama? In the past, many such theme films have been made, but they are normally heavily disguised up in comedies or as a sidetrack element. From the trailer however, it seems like Ang Lee has put the idea quite fore-front, perhaps even more daring than The Wedding Banquet (1993).

How will the two Christmas gifts fit in the socks?

Some other holiday season films in the U.S.:

Aeon Flux
King Kong
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

Nope, this is not a review about a film that I’ve just watched; rather it’s a film that I hope to have a chance to watch…

Eric Khoo is one of Singapore better-known director whose ‘Mee Pok Man’ and ‘12 Storeys’ have made quite a impact in the Singapore cinema scene some time back. His overdued effort was quite an anticipation as it was selected to premiere at the 37th Selection Directors’ Fortnight’s Opening Film at the 58th Cannes Film Festival.

Please visit here for the official site.

And for its review, do click here.

This latest Batman film, moving away from the usual crime-fighting plots, sees the birth of Batman. It was the time when Gotham City hasn’t turned 2-dimensional colour-warped; when villains don’t come dressed up in funny costumes.

The beginning bit of the film may seem rather forcefully injected, though the exaggeration may not seem so extreme, especially so that certain nice fantasy element manage to weave certain mysterious air around Batman. But at least there’s a good sense of direction and development throughout, which is normally lacking in the past Batman flicks.

Christian Bale’s great to watch; he gives pretty commendable performances in his previous films, and Batman Begins sure adds to his repertoire nicely.

I’m not much a fan of comic-to-screen films, but Batman Begins sure is one of the few rare memorable ones to come by. Luckily I didn’t listen to my friend’s so-called lousy comment on this film and went ahead and watched it even though by myself. I’m giving this film, 8.5/10.

I’m watching this film now on TV. This is perhaps the third time that I’ve watched this film. I remembered watching this film in the cinema for the first time and it was a terrible experience; it was terribly draggy, I felt so sleepy and I swore that it was a lousy film. It was made worse since Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998) was released not too long ago then. Saving Private Ryan was such a spectacular feast to the eyes.

However, watching it the second time in Spore, I realizd what a gem this film is. And that’s why I’m watching it again tonight. (after returning from the cinema. Thansk CW again )

Just some quotes from the film:

Japanese Soldier: Are you righteous? Kind? Does your confidence lie in this? Are you loved by all? Know that I was, too. Do you imagine your suffering will be any less because you loved goodness and truth?

First Sgt. Edward Welsh: I might be your best friend, and you don’t even know it.

Private Witt: I seen another world. Sometimes I think it was just my imagination.

Lt. Col. Gordon Tall: The only time you should start worrying about a soldier is when they stop bitchin’.

Private Witt: Do you ever feel lonely?
First Sgt. Edward Welsh: Only when I’m around people.

Private First Class Doll: [narrating] Oh my soul, let me be in you now. Look out through my eyes, look out at the things you’ve made. All things shining.

Private First Class Doll: [narrating] War don’t enoble me. It turns them into dogs… poisons the soul.

Pvt. Charlie Dale: What are you to me? Nothin’.

Some of those quotes, I hold them close to my heart. I may not remember them, but they strike me dearly everytime I hear or read them. It’s amazing how some of those words make my heart cry, and especially so to see those soldiers cry in The Thin Red Line.

Screen Singapore 2005 will be held in the month of August in time for Singapore’s National Day. The event aims to showcase local films in a retrospective manner, reflecting on Singapore cinema as it went through a golden era, a fall, and a revival period currently.

Ticket price: $8 / $5 (concession)