In Bruges

Venue: At Home
Food: Kaya Toast

Hey guys, I've got a great movie to recommend this week. It's called In Bruges (pronounced as "broojhs"). If some of you guys need a change from the brainless action and slapstick comedy in the cinemas right now, this just might be for you. It stars Colin Farrell (S.W.A.T, Miami Vice) Brendan Gleeson (The Village, Kingdom of Heaven) and also Ralph Fiennes (English Patient, Constant Gardener). I guess it might not be that star studded, but trust me - the acting, plot and story is definitely worth the watch.

Ken and Ray - in fookin' Bruges

'In Bruges' tells the story of two Irish contract killers (hitmen) who did a 'messy' job back home in London and has to 'lay-low' til' the dust settles - in the serene yet beautiful city of Bruges (it's in Belgium, btw). Basically it's a story about the relationship of the 2 hitmens. Both of them has a peculiar yet interesting personalities. Ray (Collin Farrell) is a young, brash, and edgy Irishmen who has a knack of swearing f-words at any instance, all the time. The other, the cool personified Ken (Brendan Gleeson) is sort of the father figure; he looks after Ray while he goes sightseeing in the quaint and historical city of Bruges. They both wait for further instructions from their wicked and bad-ass boss, Harry (Ralph Fiennes).

It's hard to write anything about the movie's plot coz it would actually really spoil the show, so I will refrain from revealing any major plot points in the movie. However, watching through the movie is a blast. This is the most original and refreshing piece of cinema that I've seen in years. The dialogue between the characters are sharp, witty, edgy and most important of all funny.
This movie is hilarious - it's actually very entertaining just to listen to them talk. The most notable scenes in the movie involves a midget (yes, a midget), an annoying Canadian, and also a pretty Belgian and her ex-bf. It's seriously entertaining. Also, there's A LOT of swearing going on in the movie - expect a barrage of "fuck!" "cunt!" and other profanities you could think of, it's all here - and it's used to great effect too.

"Do you have any Harry Potter wands, by any chance?"

However, this movie is not just about the dark humour and sharp dialogues, the involving storyline keeps you interested as well. Towards the later half of the movie, the big-boss will eventually come to Bruges to settle a 'problem'. From there the movie changes its pace from being humorous to being serious - leaning abit on the 'gangta' side of the scale. It gets a bit violent too - so be warned, there will be blood. :D

I was quite surprised as how good this movie was to be honest. I watched this at 3 a.m in the morning and had my final paper in a few hours time, so I told myself "shit I shouldnt be watching this, I should be sleeping!" But this movie kept me going and I just had to watch it til' the end, which was really quite satisfying. The plot is not cliched, there are some parts where you're SURE one thing is gonna happen, but in the end it didn't. If you're one for non-predictability - you'll definitely like this show.

"Have you seen my home video? It's better than Belgian waffles"

Seriously, just try and watch this movie if possible. It's definitely not gonna be in cinemas in KL and I doubt if it's gonna be released here in Melbourne anytime soon, so try and get it on DVD or just do the good-old-downloading thingy. It's well worth it. You know why? Coz it's in "Fookin' Bruges!"

Stars: I'm givin this a fookin' 4/5 ! One of my favourite shows this year.

Reminds me a bit of : Samuel L. Jackson's and John Travolta's character in 'Pulp Fiction'

Amount of times they say the f-word in the movie: I lost count. Sorry.

Get Smart

Venue – KLCC

Ate – Popcorn was on form!

The last time I watched an episode of Get Smart I must have been around the age of 14. Back then there were only 3 channels and you’d have to wait forever until a decent show actually came on. It would usually be Get Smart first, followed by Maero Attack, a series about a high school women’s volleyball team in Japan that are able to do amazing moves such as the summersault smash and the dreaded dizzying serve. Now that was entertainment at its best. So would this movie be a blast from the past or a dump in the present?

TopShop suits were always a cut above the others

The story revolves around Max (Steve Carell), who works at CONTROL, a secret organisation which opposes the work of KAOS, working as an analytical data provider. He does however have dreams of being a field agent, running around catching baddies and basically leading the secret agent life. Each year his hopes being promoted to a field agent are dashed as his boss would rather prefer him to stay exactly where he is. This is however, until CONTROL’s main base is breached and all its field agents identities are revealed. CONTROL then has no choice but to promote Max to a field agent or better known as Agent 86 in an attempt of uncovering KAOS main plan. Max must then go after the baddies of KAOS along with Agent 99 (Anne Hattaway) and stop their master plan of [insert evil plan here] before it is too late.

Comedy action would never be complete without some trademark cleavage

The movie is a rollercoaster of laughs from start to finish. I’ve always been a big fan of the Get Smart series so I was expecting a bit. Steve Carell is perfectly casted for the role of Agent 86 with his off-beat type of humour (The Office, USA). Although some of the scenes were fairly predictable, you should probably be watching it because of Steve Carell. Like most comedic actors, they tend to bring in their own style to the whole movie. The lead man in an action comedy is so important as choosing the wrong comedian for your movie would turn rapturous applause, to undesirable pants (see Drillbit Taylor, RV, or any Chris Tucker film). There is enough slapstick humour lurking in this film to keep even the most easily amused moviegoer satisfied. The action is pretty decent but almost all your attention will be towards Anne Hattaway who is looking mighty fine in this film. She’s probably best known for her work in The Princess Diaries, and she’s come a long way in terms of physical beauty in this film. She shows a bit more than usual in this film and should shock most of her Disney channel followers.

Phonebooth to CONTROL. Nice.

For a barrel of laughs, this movie is for you. The movie does just enough to stay along the lines of tolerable comedy and doesn’t go overboard which then turns into annoying comedy. Even if you aren’t a Steve Carell fan there are still other likeable characters for you to laugh and scream at till your shoes fall off.

Ratings – 3.6/5

Is Nothing Like - Rush Hour 3 . Thank God.

The Incredible Hulk

Venue: Hoyts Melbourne Central

Here we go again. The Incredible Hulk? Wasn't there a hulk movie not too long ago? The one where there's a certain Eric Bana and Jennifer Connelly in it? The one where it's directed by the famed director Ang Lee? Which in all honesty, sucked big time?

Well yeah, I don't know if you guys are excited or not - but there's a new Hulk in town. Now played by Edward Norton - and co stars Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, and William Hurt - it's a total revamp from the old movie. It has a totally new cast, new production crew and even a new director (Louis Leterrier). Fortunately, this one is waaaayyy better than the Ang Lee version 5 years ago. So much better.

Does this shirt make me look gay?

What's the deal with this one then? Apparently the first one sucked so bad (it didn't do well in the box office, and also didn't get the praises from the fans) The studio execs and the Marvel directors felt compelled to make a better version of The Hulk. One which stayed true to the comics, the old television series and above all, more action!

This movie is essentially a remake of the first one, although chronologically it happens after the first movie, where our tortured hero Bruce Banner is on the run from the U.S military. So you're not wrong if you wanna call this a sequel of sorts. If you have seen the first movie, as sucky as it is, it works as a strong foundation for this one. Now, there's not much explanation on how he became The Hulk - the viewers are assumed to know roughly how he came to be. I mean come on, who doesnt know The Hulk? The new movie smartly focuses on what Bruce Banner already is, and how he tries to search for an antidote to cure his 'condition'. Although of course, that doesn't come off easy.

There is so much to like about this movie. First off, it is perfectly casted. Just like Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man, I thought Edward Norton as The Hulk is spot-on. He plays the tormented, brooding, and lonely Bruce Banner character to perfection. And his love interest - Betty Ross, played by Liv Tyler is superb as well. Ok, maybe she's just gorgeous, but i thought the chemistry between those two were there, and it showed throughout the movie. You could actually feel the connection between them. Tim Roth plays Emil Blonsky - a British special operations expert - brought in to capture Bruce Banner by the evil General Ross (played by William Hurt). He then becomes The Abomination, an amped-up, mutated and uglier version of The Hulk.

Blonsky never knew Tetanus shots were quite painful..

Another thing to point out about this movie is it's pace. It's fast and filled with action scenes. There are two memorable scenes in the movie, first is the one that takes place in the university, and the other, the climactic scene when The Hulk inevitably squares off with The Abomination. These 2 scenes alone are well worth the price of the ticket. One other thing that i really like about the movie is how it made it feel believable and relevant. I know there might be two CGI monsters bashing each other towards the end but how the movie explains the situation and tells the story is excellent.

Beauty and The Hulk

I'm glad to say that the movie wasn't boring at all. There's a good mix of action, romance and abit of drama that makes this movie a hella entertaining. Im giving this movie a lot of praise maybe because this year there hasn't been a lot of movies that's just crazy good - some were a tad bit dissapointing too. Iron Man was the best movie so far - I know a lot of you dig that show, but for me this one just nicks it by a bit. There are a couple of releases in the movies this week, but by all means, skip the rest and catch this one! Highly recommended!

p/s: A super cool billionaire will appear at the end of the movie, signalling an upcoming Avengers movie. Superb!



Stars: A solid 4/5


Things not to say to The Hulk: Is that all you've got?

Look out for: Other "Hulks" in the movie :)

The Happening

Venue: The Mall Cinema, Gadong

Show: 11.20pm Screening

Snacks: Bottle of mineral water and scabbed some of Adi's popcorn

I decided very last minute to catch a movie last night, it was either 'The Incredible Hulk' or 'The Happening', decided on 'The Happening' based on the fact that I hadn't watched an M. Night movie since 'Lady in the Water' when it came out, and since there had been so many "superhero" movies, i thought it would be a nice change of pace.

'The Happening' is directed by M. Night Shyamalan, and stars Mark Wahlberg (i know he's a pretty good actor, and he's been in some really good movies like boogie nights and the departed, but he will forever be remembered as Marky Mark, and the CK underwear model! haha), it also stars, Zooey Deschanel (i do have a thing for zooey deschanel even though i do think she's a bit weird, but i think it's her eyes that kill me), John "Luigi" Leguizamo, and i guess you could say "cameos" by Spencer "Spy Kids/The Kid" Breslin and Alan "Cameron Frye from Ferris Bueller" Ruck.

"Weird hot" (shout-out to DKD who also happens

to appreciate the hot eccentricity of Zooey Deschanel)

[ *SPOILER ALERT (POSSIBLY)*

The Movie is basically set around a series of events (or "happenings") that start in New York, and seem to start to spread around America, these events involve people suddenly seeming to go crazy and start offing themselves in the most convenient way for them at that moment in time. The rest of the movie is basically about Marky Mark and his funky bunch, trying to get away from the North-East and try and distance themselves from the "happenings". ]

I was kinda hyped about this movie, i'd seen the trailers and thought that it looked pretty good, i was a bit disappointed by 'Lady in the Water' (I thought it was a bit "wishy-washy"), and i was looking forward to a decent flick from M. Night. I would'nt say that this is his best flick, but i'd definitely rate it higher than 'Lady in the Water' just because i preferred the x-files element of this movie, and maybe M. Night doing fantasy just isn't for me (I still think that no one does fantasy better than Guillermo Del Toro at the moment).

[*SPOILER ALERT*

I was 'pleasantly shocked' by the brutality and gore of the suicide scenes, particularly the earlier ones, like the construction workers walking off the scaffolding and plummeting to their deaths, actually now that i think more about it, the movie was dammmnnnn brutal! haha, epsecially with Spencer Breslin getting blown away by a shotgun!.]

I watched the movie with some friends, and some of em walked out of the movie going "wtf" thinking that the ending had something to do with "the power of love" hahahaha, i guess they were expecting more, but i thought it was pretty good, i suppose at some point the movie does go a lil' "B-grade" due to the gore of the suicides, and i did find myself squirming a bit, haha, but if anything, i wasn't too impressed by the overall "environmental" message of the movie, i'm guessing that's what M. Night's message is from the movie, but hey give the guy credit for coming up with another unique and original plot.

Rating: 3/5

Last say:

Aprilsky will probably dig this movie because of the x-files element, but he might be a bit disappointed due to the lack of aliens... (See i can do x-files, i am not an alien hater! haha, so long as the genres don't get spliced!), and word of caution for people watching with Aprilsky, beware of spoilers! especially in drawings! haha...

King Shen, let's watch another movie, something better than superhero gayvie please... haha...

Superhero Movie

Venue - GSC Pavilion

Ate - Free 'Freaking' Popcorn Yeahhh

Just looking at the movie poster, you know that things are off to a bad start. There hasn’t really been a good spoof movie for quite sometime. But hey, its not supposed to be heavy, only light hearted right?

Dating was never easy for Vertical man

The essence of the movie follows Spiderman’s storyline with a few insertions from Batman as well as the Fantastic Four. The main dude, Rick Riker (played by Drake Bell, you may know him from Nickelodeon’s The Drake and Josh Show) is on a science project tour where instead of being bitten by a spider, he’s bitten by a dragonfly. Not long after he starts to develop supernatural powers such as super strength, moving faster than a speeding bullet and being able to breakdance on walls. His enemy for this movie is a super villain named Hour Glass, who needs to suck the living soul out of people in order to prolong his own life.

The only good thing that came out of this movie was the free popcorn coupon that I got from this random guy. I have to admit that I was expecting quite a bit from this movie (namely humour) but it is sadly a very big letdown. Not since the days of The Naked Gun trilogy, Hot Shots! or more recently the Scary Movie phenomena has there really been a good spoof movie. The movie contains a lot of fart jokes, toilet humour and funny name characters but fails to impress. Perhaps it’s the fact that making fun of superhero movies isn’t really as funny as making fun of horror theme movies or slasher movies. In those films we tend to be scared and are at the edge of our seats hence making fun of movies such as The Ring, War of the Worlds and Scream would offer a light hearted experience. It came to a point when I was actually counting the funny moments and that can only be bad news. They didn’t really need to go out of their way to insert every single movie in this film but more or less just concentrate on actually making it funny. It got a bit congested after a while, of which my mind was deliberating on what I could have done with my money instead.

mmmm.. this movie sucks

The movie is a joke, but not a good joke. At one point you would be screaming for the humour to stop as you try your best to hold back your tears (not joy). Superhero Movie can be safely put into the category of movies which you won’t admit to watching.

Sling bags are always trendy at the movies

Still, was lucky enough to be graced with the presence of resident mobiedick contributor Zaki Abdul Rahman aka ZKZ. Look forward to seeing you back here again man.

Rating – 0.5/5

As bad as – A Lucky Pierre.

The Chronicles of Narnia : Prince Caspian

Place - Pavilion

Ate- Crappy popcorn

Looking at the movie poster, you get the sense of ohhh and ahhh’s! The title still reminds you of the previous Narnia of which you had desperately tried to stop yourself from committing suicide in a public area. Still, one thought about the 2nd film is that how and why would anybody make a film where one army has blades and swords and the other has felines, bears and rodents.

Movie starts out with Prince Caspian (being the next heir to the throne), running for his life as an assassination attempt is being made on his life by his uncle. Caspian is then handed a golden horn by his teacher (who oddly enough looks like Santa Claus) and is told to only use it if things start to get a little desperate. The prince then runs into the woods where the people of Narnia stay. Once inside and predictably cornered by the murderers who were sent to kill him, Prince Caspian takes the horn and blows it. Fast forward to another dimension, Peter and his siblings are then suddenly transported back to Narnia. However, all is far from rosey. Narnia is a far cry from the world from which they were hailed as Kings and Queens 200 years ago. They eventually meet Prince Caspian and start to plot on how to take back his Kingdom as well as restoring order to their fellow Narnians against the armies who had taken their land from them.

Where's wally?

If you’re going on the basis of “please let this be better than the first one” then you’re actually in for a treat. The movie does have an added dark side to it (you actually see various Narnians dying) and will probably keep you on the edge of your seat till the end. That should first and foremost be the criteria of any would be action or fantasy movies. They should be keeping you on the edge of your seat. Fight scenes are pretty much average but are probably better than Harry Potter and his little stick. You will also start to see different sides of the Kings and Queens as they show their fears and insecurities in the film.

I laugh in the face of danger. Jolly good.

The movie was trying to bring over the kiddy fantasy element into a LOTR type of scenario. However the only problem with that is that LOTR was actually cool. It would be hard to believe that unless you are aged 8 and under, you would be aspiring to be King Peter, one of the horse people or other assorted fantasy animals. Every scene involving the heros was a corny moment waiting to happen. Throughout the whole movie, you’d be hoping that one of the mystical creatures would suddenly get hungry and start eating its human foes. It is a kid’s fantasy book so I don’t think anyone should expect too much from Narnia especially after the first one.

So if you’re gonna watch this for the first time it’s not really gonna be that good. However if you actually survived after watching the first one, then you’ll probably be quite entertained with this one. However bear in mind that if you can’t stand the fact that children are beating the crap out of older men, then skip it and go watch LOTR trilogy all over again.

Stars – 2.9/5

Most common quote – “FOR NARNIA!!!” …. good grief…

Is Nothing Like – Gimli from LOTR. Now that’s a badass dwarf.