Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Grandma (2015)

Nice! Weitz and Tomlin (and the rest of the cast, and crew) have made something of a gem out of this simple little film, IMHO.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Everest (2015)

Watched in IMAX 3D - Nice! Not sure if this warrants a viewing in 3D but it certainly didn't hurt. But a big screen is probably the best way to catch this.

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Woman in Gold (2015)

Watched on a plane where the image and sound weren't the best. This comes across as decent generic fare. Helen Mirren is oh so watchable.

Friday, September 18, 2015

Little Big Master - 五個小孩的校長 (2015)

Nice! (and the image and sound on the plane were good too!)

Sicario (2015)

This film paints the world to be a fuckin' dark place.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

3688 - 想入飞飞 (2015)

I was hoping that this will turn out to be good but the story was pretty weak. IMHO, Royston has yet to prove to be a strong storyteller when it comes to the feature length format. The cast performances weren't strong enough to make an otherwise weak story (and script) captivating. The musical numbers didn't really help to energise the film enough. Which is a real shame, because the poster, the ideas and the trailer all look pretty good. But the actual product turned out to be a pretty dull affair.

Assassination (2015)

Nice!

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

The Assassin - 刺客聂隐娘 (2015)

IMHO - this is a pretty brave film. I began struggling to stay awake after the first 10 minutes (and I did succumb a few times along the way). I've never been more aware of cricket sounds or birds chirping, and it's been a while since I watched a film where the actors do a lot of internal emoting. You can't go wrong with Shu Qi. She's hot. Dialogue is sparse and the few fight scenes are brief and bear little resemblance to the types found in more commercially oriented films. I suspect a second viewing will probably be needed for me to appreciate this film better. That said, I won't recommend this to a mainstream audience.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015)

Enjoyed this loads. Made me LOL and cry. Thomas Mann stands out in this, IMHO.

Saturday, September 12, 2015

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)

Was entertained. Love the chemistry between the two leads. Love Hugh Grant in this. Doesn't hurt that most of the characters are mostly competent and nicely realised by strong performers.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Inside Out (2015)

Didn't help that I was distracted by a crying baby at the start of the film. I basically wasn't paying attention to Lava, the short that preceded this.

That said, I found this rather plain. Didn't find the characters engaging either (in fact, found the lead character Joy very irritating). There is some cleverness to the whole setup, but not enough to balance out the things I didn't enjoy about this flick.

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Amy (2015)

"If I could give it all back just to walk down the street with no hassle, I would."

I'm a little divided on this. A few times, I was bored because expectations weren't met (I've heard great things about this before watching). At times I was touched. Generally, I liked it. A well structured, in-depth presentation of a tragic figure whom I found likable.