michael1208

The sixth installment in the DCEU is a total bonkers adventure similar to Marvel's Thor inspired by Lord of the Ring trilogy, Star Wars and Tron: Legacy, a major improvement following the disappointing events in Justice League. It is a standalone and unique superhero origin not seen before thanks to Wan's amazing effort for being able to fit in wide variety of his visions throughout a straightforward background story of a special boy with ability to talk to fish. It offers a spectacular undersea experience in terms of scope with stunning CGI visual effects on par with those in Avatar, impressive editing and energetic wide-angle shots of different action sequences, including beautiful scores as usual from Rupert Gregson-Williams. Character development might not be strong but the chemistry between Arthur (Jason Momoa) and gorgeous Mera (Amber Heard) is just so charming on screen, even the villains King Orm (Patrick Wilson) and Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) felt surprisingly threatening compared to other superheroes flicks in recent years. Despite long running time and usual flaws, it explores the seven seas myths in depth, fast pacing with good transition, a third act at a majestic scale that ends in a positive note that would certainly lead DCEU to a brighter tone in future.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

The arrival of these bad-asses have boosted a transformation effort of DC universe in term of a bit lighter tone at the very beginning but the entire film still leaves an impression of being darker compared to other Marvels production, which is a bit let down from what it is marketed. Trying to expand just like Guardians of the Galaxy, uneven plot and character development are the main issues of Ayer's screenplay. The movie sets up after the death of Superman and rushes towards the event hosted by the main antagonist, affecting the overall fluidity of the story. Assuming that audiences are already familiar with the comics, all the characters are briefly introduced and it works less effectively especially when the Squad itself is not well known like Batman or Superman. Will Smith and Margot Robbie perform decently as Deadshot and Quinn, emotional engagement does exist among all but lack in depth for featuring too many characters at one shot especially Joker. Despite these main problems, action sequences are packed enough and fun to follow while the visual effects are more colorful compared to the other DC films; Retaining the rhythm of Zimmer's BvS theme, Steven Price has composed the scores in a different tunes, combining some rock musics that suit well the film and a sense of DC universe's continuity. While it misfires at plot and those super villains are not shown to be doing anything too evil, it does not aim to be like other superheroes films, it is still amusing and it gives a new life to DC's big-screen universe.

The latest presentation from Illumination brings audiences a whole new bunch of adorable animals mimicking Pixar's Toy Story but in an overly familiar blended Zootopia/ Finding Dory story line. While lacks of originality and inspiring emotional engagement, it is still a simple, straight forward story lifted by its fast pacing adventure, bloated with ridiculous fantasy and constant charms that are whole-heartedly fun for animal lovers. Characters development is slightly thin due to variety of pets introduced but the film works well in its smaller moments by capturing the sweet companionship bonding between the pets and their owner as well as how do pets behave behind the doors. Music choice and scores by Alexandre Desplats are decent but comparing with Disney; the bright, colorful, state-to-the-art visual effects especially the city skyline is stunningly impressive. This new attempt after the craze on minions continues the mindless entertainment in a repetitive predictability but its flurry fun is overall enjoyable, ends touchingly and definitely amuse the young audiences.

Pixar has once again strengthened its brand on delivering quality animation, though lack of highly original featured in Inside Out but definitely not repeating the sequel misfire just as the Cars franchise. The plot itself seems a bit generic, familiar and sort of predictable but the combination of both positive and negative core values about determination, love, family, friendship, memories, sadness, lost and regret have contributed to several thought provoking moments. It is a bright, clever and simple thanks to the adorable main character, Dory and introduction of new characters full with heart; audiences might have mix feelings of sweetness, inspiring and sadness throughout the adventure of this little blue creature under the sea with spectacular and colorful visual treats. It might not match the classiness of Nemo and full of kids imagination especially at the final act, it still works well for family goers and delivers the messages which the film intends to. Just like what Dory says "The best things happen by chance, because that's life"; the best animation happens by teamwork, because that's real effort.

Forget about the formulaic spies plot and its flaws, the film does not look silly for the wise decision of making it into a comedy and it sparks thanks to the strong rapport between Johnson and Hart. The thriller may seems to be dumb and lack of inventiveness in all the right ways but it is also a bit smarter than what audiences could have expected. The hilarious but not nonsense actions, sweet high-school buddies friendships, comedy about bullies and inspiration to transform a better oneself however are all blended well into this lack-of-originality thriller; though insufficient to generate big humors, it is still able to keep your smile till the end. The film centralises on the delightful chemistry between the two actors, both Hart and Johnson deliver a cheerful bromantic, especially the latter who takes his character and silliness seriously other than just knowing to flex muscles. It might lack in depth to explain about the quest of the mission but it is overall entertaining due to the commitment of the cast to bring us laughter.

Sequels of horror genre have always been cursed to turn out poor yet director James Wan manages to set his bar as compelling as the first one; though not critically-acclaimed but overall a satisfying scare without blood and gore. Slightly longer than its predecessor, the 134 minutes running time enhances smooth pacing of the plot, allows further debate over the controversy of supernatural phenomenons and scientific psychology, human tricks and role play of the religion organisations; even if parts of its horror elements may feel routine, it is still able to trigger chills and unsettling moods. Characters development and emotional engagement especially the love life of Warren have made this follow up more to like a family crisis drama interrupted by a demonic figure, thanks to the strong performance of the young casts, eerie but not over loud thematic scores as well as the confident cinematography and visual effects. Overall, the efforts of remaining the styles from the first one, the decision to twist the final act and the addition of dramatic aspects are mixing so well which eventually it just feels so real that leaves the desire to follow up with the next documented case.

Acts as a direct sequel from the ending of Days of Future Past, Singer continues the main themes of family, struggling to accept oneself and the challenge of letting go of the past in expanding this ambitious mutants universe, though slightly mess up but it is still a competent film. It starts off at a fine pacing with several pieces of subplots to reintroduce the old members, decently surface the villain but due to overloading of stories to tell, there's a lot of flaws especially at the final act as well as some underdeveloped new characters. The story still focuses on the three main characters - Xavier (Professor X), Erik (Magneto) and Raven (Mystique), all deliver promisingly just as previous installments that leads to a very engaging chemistry together with powerful scores by John Ottman, visually stunning effects and a number of fun moments delivered by both Professor X and Quicksilver (although the latter seems to steal the attention much better in two major scenes). The theme of hope might not be quite resonant this time and it might not be the best entry in the trilogy but overall it's more humanly emotional engaging and certainly one of the quite successful superhero trilogy reboot.

The film is thought to be an inspiring love story revolving around a caretaker trying to motivate a disabled to begin a brand whole new chapter of life but sadly it turns out to be the other way round. Focusing more than half of the running time in glib romance, there are some funny moments between the main characters that are enjoyable but the development of the plot has wasted several important thought provoking themes - controversy of the suffering between the disabled and the people around, struggle to live and find courage to regain confidence with physical impairment, sensitive subject on committing suicide and self willingness to survive as well as care, support and inspiration from a true love. Both Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin deliver their performance well while the choices of songs are pretty beautiful including the powerful scores composed by Craig Armstrong yet all these are unable to compensate the poor character and relationship developments. Perhaps the story should have reorganized by adding on more depth into the sufferings of the handicap, further converting into some positive inspirations rather than just steamrolling the value of life.

Not sure whether Universal Pictures is desperate to repeat their box office dominating success as in 2015, this prequel/ sequel to 2012's Snow White and the Huntsman feels to be pointless, uneven and unnecessary. The film does not learn from the mistakes of its predecessor especially in term of pacing that is two times much slower for the entire first hour, fills with relentless cheesy and humorless dialogues, irrelevant romantic scenes, then immediately rushes into short and unimpressive climax. It gathers a great cast, Charlize Theron as the Evil Queen looks tremendous with her outstanding performance but unexpectedly limited by screen time; Emily Blunt is cool as the Ice Queen while the chemistry between Chris Hemsworth and Jessica Chastain is dull due to the main theme about love and betrayal is poorly crafted into this clumsily-penned fantasy tale. Overall, it is an easily forgotten sequel that has totally wasted the talents of its cast, lacks of moral satisfaction and seems to be an empty lackluster concept of Frozen - Lord of the Rings combination that clearly should have "let it go" at the first place.

It's indeed a special science fiction thriller inspired by director/writer Jeff Nichols' own life experience who enjoys telling a story at his own vision that's not intently made for general audiences. The film revolves around a kid with supernatural abilities that has similarities to Spielberg's E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind and a little bit of Tomorrowland; its thin plot progresses slowly, less family friendly and humorless but it manages to engage audiences by triggering the eagerness to crack for all secrets behind the mystery. The entire journey is dangerous and emotional thanks to the outstanding performance by Michael Shannon as a caring father and well supported by the charming performance of the son by Jaeden Lieberher. It has limited but powerful scores, it does not reveal all secrets and end ambiguously, rather most importantly the science fiction acts as a metaphor to the beauty of parenthood - faith and sacrifice of parents to ensure the happiness of their children.

The most anticipated sequel of Man of Steel has once again attempted to differentiate its own DC brand from those in Marvels through the return of the Dark Knight which continues to amplify a darker, grittier and sombre adventure of clashing heroes. Slightly overlong in term of running time, the film opens surprisingly beautiful with flashback of Wayne's disastrous childhood and further progresses into the reckless fight between Superman and Zod at the end of previous installment. The ambitious and potential major acts in the film - conflict between Batman and Superman, Lex Luthor's motives and the fight against villain at the climax; all seems to be underdeveloped and not well executed, leaving several questions of all the intentions behind. Ben Affleck as Batman is on par with Bale's version but a bit more brutal and stubborn, Cavill's Superman is fine but a bit depressed, Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman is definitely the gorgeous one and she manages to capture the attentions even with a limited screening time, Jeremy Iron's Alfred owns a great chemistry with Wayne but Eisenberg portrayal of Lex Luthor is over exaggerated. Although heavily CGIs, Snyder has delivered spectacular visual effects and intense actions among the superheroes while the collaboration between Zimmer and Junkie XL are just outstanding to produce different adrenaline driven theme scores for all the superheroes. While it might not be the best superheroes flick, lacks of humors and emotional depth compared to The Dark Knight trilogy, it is an overall improvement from Man of Steel and the Nolan style ending is still impressive enough to further expands into the universe of Justice League.

Our beloved and adorable Po is most welcomed to return in this ridiculous, playful yet beautiful third installment. The entire animation has exactly the same formulaic plot as the previous two episodes - a villain comes out of no where, the journey in preparing to fight and at the end only the main character can take down the big bad fella; adding on a whole bunch of cheesy moments but it is hilarious and entertaining thanks to Jack Black's well commitment. The Kung Fu adventure is absolutely beautiful and impressive, thanks to the stunning visual effects which heavily covers the Chinese cultures, settings and backgrounds; also the scores by Hans Zimmer who perfectly composes by mixing every single Western tracks with Chinese musical instruments. This family-friendly adventure might be fun without any great moral values as in Disney and Pixar animations but the reunion of this chubby panda with his biological father and the conflict with the adapted parent does generate some important messages that is worth to learn.

After the success of Frozen and Big Heroes 6, Disney continues to improve by upgrading its animation quality not only in terms of story and effects, but surprisingly on originality, delivering messages and a sense of maturity. Setting up in a city occupied by all types of animals, it manipulates the relationship of predators and preys as a metaphor to emphasis the current society's biases phenomenon rather than the usual family relationship issues audiences usually seen in previous animated films. Being a funny and adventurous simple tale, the structural progression of the story is not the usual straightforward style that is kid friendly but mostly due to its thrilling elements that lead to twisted plots which is quite rare in animations. Scores composed by Michael Giacchino and theme song "Try Everything" by Shakira perfectly fit while the ingenious landscapes of metropolitan city and mother nature definitely serve as splendid visual treats. It is undeniable smart and classic, strong like a bull to stress on the existence of prejudice and peace, only if we learn to respect each others from different races, backgrounds and cultures.

The X-men universe expands a step wider thanks to the unusual mutated tones of storytelling compared to other Marvel's superheroes that surprisingly turns out very effective and brilliant. Despite a formulaic yet expected superhero plot, the non-linear narrative by slipping the several action sequences together with flashbacks added with the heavy adult-related hilarious jokes throughout the film are wildly entertaining. The film stays faithfully to the characteristics of Deadpool - both humors and violence, which are perfectly portrayed by Ryan Reynolds, who is definitely the right actor to suit the character. The romantic chemistry between Wilson and Vanessa is emotionally engaging and convincing compared to Wolverine, making it a great option for Valentine outing. Changing his suit from green to red, Reynolds certainly has a lot of fun time in this non-family-friendly superhero adventure and the overall outcome has made the classic Deadpool shines among the other superheroes from the same studio.

Unlikely the complexity in his previous masterpiece Birdman, Iñárritu has approached a straightforward story without much dialogues but enriched with metaphors about vengeance and redemption. It is an unresistant hypnotic drama that combines revenge, survival, violence and desperation intensely that would certainly chill audiences both physically and mentally. Each and every single detail of the film is taken care perfectly, death and evilness of the characters are well captured with beauty and horror thanks to the cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki, the setting of the stranded nature background and the powerful orchestral scores add on the sombre effects which all contribute to the impressive technical aspects of the cinematic experience. Leonardo DiCaprio amazes again with his brutal and anchoring performance struggling to survive while the commitment between him and Tom Hardy into their respective roles have successfully turned the director's artistic visions into an immersive life of death journey. Although it seems to be a strange film with striking images of blood soaking ground, animals and humans, it is an inspiring wild expedition about humanity and inhumanity that is elegant in its own simplicity.

Financial and economy facts related drama will always trigger sleeping mode of the audiences but exceptionally, this turns out to be surprisingly fast-paced, entertaining and funny. Adapted from Michael Lewis' book about 2008 global financial crisis, the screenplay from director Adam McKay co-writing with Charles Randolph does not broadcast the audiences directly to understand tonnes of financial theories, but to engage and enlighten through another creative way by mixing this dry lessons with parody and satire. Without a significant hero, the choice of the cast is definitely perfect - Bale, Carell, Gosling and Pitt perform extremely well, together with the supporting casts to play around with mortgage, subprime rates and credit debts. Despite illustrating this subject in a triumphant way, it has also successfully delivered self-awareness regarding desperation, political corruptions and collateral damages in economy slowdown; leaving an impression of skepticism on Wall Street while restoring some faith in Hollywood's capability in making great films.

Based on the true event in 2010, this claustrophobic film about miners who are trapped underground surprisingly starts off straight to the disastrous incident but buried by its own formulaic plot. It offers the same horrific experience just like in "127 hours"; the underpaying jobs and risks faced by the miners, the setting and cultures in Chile, the fear and trapped in the mines, the rally, political plays, media propaganda and the rescue attempts are all included well throughout the story. However, screenwriters squeeze too much in the film, the background and life events of each characters seems to lose engagement, causing imperfect character developments and less inspiring. Scores from James Horner are trying to remain the tone of the film but it starts to deviate into lighthearted due to unnecessary scenes, making audiences wonder the existence of real tragedy. However, the film still offers a thrilling climax and satisfyingly ends in a beautiful note even though it should have just focused on the disaster, survival skills and rescue operations.

Foreseeing the franchise's potential in the future, Disney has invested brilliantly by taking over Lucas Film and nominating Abrams as the director of Episode VII, who has done everything just right in reviving the fantasy saga. Having himself written the script with Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt, the film finds itself recycling the basic formula - An adventure beyond the galaxy, loaded with ton of action sequences, sense of humors and emotions, but the most important is the overall improvements from the last prequel 10 years ago. While the story is much predictable, the lightsaber fight might not as epic as the original trilogy and the ending seems a bit unpleasant, the return of the original cast mixing with fresh bloods creates a great chemistry in developing the climax, the visual effects are undeniable marvelous thanks to its wide angle cinematography and breathtaking CGIs, even the scores from John Williams, powerful as always to hold audiences at their seats until the end of credits roll. Although being formulaic, less darker antagonists and certain characters are underused, Abrams is still successful in awakening the nostalgic force of this galactic sci-fi adventure.

Written by the younger generation of Schulz, the classic animation sticks nearly to its original source materials and remains traditional style of telling a simple yet unambitious story that is friendly for kids. Diverting from the main genre usually seen in Disney's style, Blue Sky Studio approaches by representing the entire story in a group of kiddos without any significant adults characters and relationship between the parents and children. The story is mainly separated into two parts - the first part on the main protagonist, Charlie Brown is very educable and absolutely suitable for the maturer young audiences while the fantasy part of Snoopy that is full of actions and adventure would definitely serve as great enjoyment for the kids. The combination of colorful CGIs and the unique visual effects are spectacular, charming, adorable and it looks as an upgrade from the comic version. Overall, this remake is definitely a delightful, sweet, warmhearted and nostalgic family fare that stresses on the importance of looking and cherishing at the positive values that each person owns.

Simple, straightforward and predictable, the second Pixar's production of the year might not be creative as usual, appear to be familiar and formulaic plot but overall still has no problem to become a holiday enjoyment of the young and the old one. The main part of the story sets between human and the dinosaur based on a reversed formula which the dinosaur talks; it is a smooth A to Z educational animation which is filled with a lot of positive values that intends to influence the young adults. Presented in colorful photorealistic sets, it is visually stunning and there are certainly some beautiful scenes without any single dialogue, which effectively works well just like Wall-E, together with satisfying scores from academy awards winner Mychael Danna (Life of Pi). The adventure of grow and learn, cherishing family bonding and appreciating the value of friendship are the three major elements of usual Pixar's trademark, not only adorable, charming and family-friendly, but also emotionally engaging at certain times that might challenge audiences tear holding power. Short Film: Sanjay's Super Team Similar to the film, strong family bonding element in between the father and son, effectively presented without dialogue (except final scene), strong culture element and creatively featuring Gods as superheroes warriors.

Unlike fantasy stories like LOTR, Hobbits and Harry Potter, second part which claims to be the epic conclusion to the Hunger Games series starts right immediately at the scene it stops at Part I, which is a little bit brutal when the title displayed. The entire film is expected to be rushing and full of actions between the rebels and the Capitol but it still ends up at a slow pacing and lacks of glorious actions, most likely due to the attempt to stick to the original story in the novel. The plot focuses a lot on Katniss, Gale and Peeta which allow them to perform well while the attention on the political acts and propaganda-making have wiped most of the screen time, leading the weaker character developments of the supporting cast, less emotional impacts and poor progression of romance. Musics by James Newton Howard is beautiful as he utilises the same theme from Part I and manage to lift up some impressive moments of the draggy ending while the visuals are spectacularly shot especially during the climax. In short, Mockingjay is the weakest entry among the series due to the greedy mistake to split but the effort in its political twist has brought this finale a lot more outstanding compared to other young adult genre which waste a lot of time solely on romance.

As the direct sequel to Skyfall, no doubt that Spectre generates a lot of hypes but all high expectations are brought down to a moderate level after the theme song opening. The story starts off at Day of the Dead parade in Mexico, which is beautifully shot and the impressive cinematography remains till the end thanks to cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema and editor Lee Smith, who both served Christopher Nolan's Interstellar previously. Director Sam Mendes and three screenwriters did a great job for Skyfall, but Spectre which appears as Part II of Skyfall proves that their repeat collaboration is lacking fresh ideas in which the whole structure of the plot, not only slightly overlong but also exactly similar to Skyfall. Daniel Craig still looks awesome as James Bond, the potential of Christoph Waltz as the villain is let down by limited appearance while the chemistry between Bond's girl Léa Seydoux is slightly awkwardly developed. The scores from Thomas Newman are great, the theme song "Writing's on the Wall" by Sam Smith which sneaks at the very beginning is solid but generates underwhelming feel if compared to "Skyfall". Overall, Spectre is still an entertaining and visually engaging spy action flick even if the rushing production may have dragged a lot at plot wise.

This biographical drama about high-wire artist Philippe Petit is presented in a surprising and classical narration from the beginning till the end which turns out very successful thanks to its well balanced visual effects and fact adaptations. The plot is layered into several structures perfectly, its progression from dream, plannings, challenges, actions, consequences until memories are developed in an acceptable pace. Main actor Joseph-Gordon Levitt's efforts in practicing high-wire experience and learning French are fruitful which his charming performance and immersion in portraying Philippe manages to attract the audiences to fall in love and to follow the fierce determination to achieve a "suicidal ambition". Director Zemeckis' ingenious camera work, CGI, SFX as well as the beautiful scores have brought this chilling and insane lifetime experience to a feeling like walking on the wire in real life. Most importantly, despite keeping the audiences on the edge of their seats and terrifying height, it delivers the messages of not giving up your own dream even the others might see it as an insane imagination.

Del Toro spends almost ten years to make his imaginative horror love story into the big screen, it works well as a periodic gothic romance thanks to its beautiful setting and sumptuous costumes yet falls short due to its predictable plot at the very opening of the film. It's a film full with paintings, dreams, terrifying fantasy and the addition of several modern types disturbing scares that really fit perfectly into the story but the supernatural are far more lesser than expected. Both Mia Wasikowska and Tom Hiddleston deliver solid performance while Jessica Chastain surprises audiences the most in which she is able to have fun expanding the full potential of her eerie character physically, mentally and emotionally well. Despite the disappointing story line and the CGIs of the spirits which look like those in Mama, this artistic and sombre film on a woman trapped in the social conventions is worth a watch for its creativity of combining both modern and classical elements.

Not to confuse with 2013 Fox's The Internship, this similar type of drama without a ship behind feels more promising, funny but not ridiculous and thoughtful which one could have expected through its poster. The story delivers something fresh, a creative idea of senior citizen internship program to present the cross-generation relationship, events that are commonly occur in daily working life and how important is the experience of the elderly to inspire the younger generation. The film moves in a smooth pace, filled with nice musics and inspiring scores, along with a gentle spirit that attracts audiences to spend time following the amusing characters for about 120 minutes but a little bit upset by the rushing second half and too unrealistic perfection on its ending. However, the warm, charming and charismatic chemistry between De Niro and Hathaway is the sweetest and most beautiful part of the film to enjoy which makes us believe that we can manage well both career and family life.

Ares III, another group mission of NASA astronauts to the Mars may not have originality in plot due to source adaptation and visual effects not as amazing as Academy Awards winner Interstellar, director Ridley Scott and screenwriter Drew Gooddard still manage to turn it into a successful and brilliant sci-fi. It's definitely not scientifically accurate at all levels due to minor flaws, but the story mainly focuses on the survival skills and rescue efforts which are presented in a straightforward, entertaining, chilling, educational yet inspiring way. The film is surprisingly funny compared to Interstellar and Gravity thanks to the outstanding performance from Matt Damon who delivers the character's positive attitude overshadowing the fear of being a stranded stranger on the red planet, other strong star-studded cast including Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels and Chiwetel Ejiofor have solid performances as well as scores composed by Harry Gregson-Williams, not extremely powerful but strong enough to fit into scenes. While it seems to be a rescue mission, the film is able to deliver an important message - regardless the help from the whole world, self-initiation determines the survival opportunity. Overall at a smaller scale and fans perception, The Martian fits perfectly as sequel of 2013's Gravity and prequel to 2014's Interstellar.

More monster characters, more amusing moments and more exciting parties have upgraded an additional star rating for the hotel this Halloween season. The animation starts off immediately from where it ended previously, progresses in a moderate pacing, filled with numerous hilarious moments though with the usual ridiculous Adam Sandler type of humors, it's not overly used and creates just sufficient amount of laughter. The message about to change and to adapt in order to fit oneself into a new environment is well simplified to cater children's understanding while the eye popping, colorful visual effects together with pop styles emerging into the story are well crafted to make young adults feel like kids. Overall, the sequel is an energetic animation compared to its predecessor, heart-warming and certainly a satisfying family goers movie to enjoy.

Glorious at its name, the film is not a blockbuster with intense actions or CGIs, thanks to its original source from a true story in 1996, it works well as an adventurous hiking drama. The beginning is pretty surprising as it does not drag much and straight progressing to Nepal, followed by preparation for the climb and then most of the second half turns into a terrifying experience struggling to survive. At certain parts, there's some flaws of jumping scenes due to editing and it's quite confusing to track who is who due to too many characters but the cast has delivered promising performances and the stunning cinematography has brought audiences the great scenery of the peaks. The journey ends in an inspiring way that even though hiking is challenging, the psychology to deal with death and to face the reality are the hardest in life.

The sequel to the sleeper hit The Maze Runner last year is following the trend of The Hunger Games series, in which it rises from the first chapter and ends at a high note as middle chapter. New writer T.S Nowlin has changed the original source materials into a formulaic young adult action adventure with some flaws and illogical competency of the villains but the tone has overall turned into much darker, more happening compared to the first one and less focused on unnecessary romance. The pacing of the film is slightly over rushed due to expansion of bigger field, causing a fair development of new locations and proper introduction of the new characters. However, cinematography of the film looks appealing thanks to angles of shooting, strong scores, intense action sequences, good CGIs on the Cranks, visually tremendous of the sets and firm performance from the young casts. Though with a lot of questions left behind and predictable twisted ending, the sequel seems worth to be anticipated only if it's not separated into two parts.

Pixar kicks start the film with a beautiful opening score and slowly introduces the emotion characters throughout the platform of a simple normal growth experience of an 11-year-old girl. The plot is familiar but the creativity and conceptualisation of Pixar to tell the story from inside the mind **** using five different emotions - joy, sadness, anger, disgust and fear have brought their latest picture to secure the Oscars. Not only focusing on the emotions, the story further expands into memories (short/ long-term and core memories), imagination, dreams and forgetfulness in a fantastic landscape to construct the feeling, mind, reaction and soul of the main character. This original approach connects well both the adults and children, emotionally engaging, entertaining, visually colorful and inspiring. The level of intellectual and emotional daring are consistent until the end of this major emotion animation, reminding audiences the balancing of all these five feelings that leads to the human's capability of love and affection.

Warner Brothers clearly knows the success of Sherlock Holmes, Mission Impossible, James Bond series, recent outstanding performance of Fox's Kingsmen and Spy but with much competition of the same genre, they decide to surprise the audiences with this remake of the 1960's popular TV spy series. The film opens quite impressive with Impossible's style of action sequences between the two main protagonists which one of them is being featured as the villain. The first twisting part of the story line is predictable and it gets more thrilling when Director Guy Ritchie goes further to add twists and turns. The WWII setting is well designed and crafted, the humorous chemistry between Cavill and Hammer is promising, the scores by Daniel Pemberton that keeps pounding 60's style soundtracks match the film perfectly while the cinematography and editing have presented the extended climax creatively and fast-pacing. While the dialogues are not as intelligent as in Sherlock Holmes, the whole film is still fun, engaging and stylish to cover its lack of substance.

Even with its predictable plot throughout the entire film, it is well crafted thanks to the balanced mixed of its own drama and the bloody fist fighting sequences. While it offers nothing fresh, it is a production that leads audiences going through characters study, each and every consequences of their acts, as well as a journey to finding back the strength that has been masked by protagonist's self-centered behavior and arrogance. The main asset of the film is definitely Jake Gyllenhaal himself who has incredibly executing the bad tempered, brutal and depressing characteristics of Billy Hope. James Horner has done an amazing job in composing the scores which intensify the emotional engagement and dark moments faced by the characters especially in one of the impressive scene when Oona Laurence who played Leila blaming the fault of her dad. Other than the boxing theme, audiences might have seen the story for times but the inspiring messages such as we couldn't control everything in our lives and God always has a plan to teach us a lesson are worth for a watch.

This action-spy franchise follows the trend of Fast and Furious, to be more specific in terms of its smart and thrilling screenplay that keeps improving from one installment to another. Director Christopher McQuarrie has another amazing team up with Tom Cruise after Edge of Tomorrow, not only delivering an exciting thriller well balanced by suspense, actions and humors at the right moment, but also the fun, shrewd and metaphorical dialogues throughout the entire film. The well structured plot helps a lot in full character developments of all the cast while the chemistry between Cruise and Ferguson is excellent which enables the audiences to feel the interpersonal engagement and teamwork spirit in completing the impossible mission. Joe Kraemer does well in composing the scores by mixing the MI theme into different style of musics while the action sequences are captured in great cinematography angle and in a variety of shootings, hand combats and vehicles chasing. The twisting at climax and the surprising way to end the fate of the impossible villain are presented at a perfect pacing, leading this installment as the bridge connection to potentially expand further and deeper.

It's always challenging to introduce new character especially being the final one in Phase II after so many Avengers assembled but Marvel has done it perfectly well in presenting this tiny superhero. The editing is slightly affected by two obvious jump scenes in the beginning of the film and the emotional engagement of the characters is slightly rushing but given the limited 2 hours running time, the progression of the plot is rather fine linking to MCU by covering the background, science, encounter, relationship between characters and mission to fight the villain. Paul Rudd leads a charming performance as Antman, Michael Douglas and Evangeline Lilly also offer some surprise as supporting casts while Corey Stoll as the antagonist is a bit underdeveloped. The CGI and action sequences are at a smaller scale, the shrinking cinematography is outstanding together with scores composed by Christophe Beck but being a less darker superhero film, Marvel has once again delivered successfully.

It's a great welcome to see Arnold Schwarzenegger back into real actions after so many guest appearances in other films but the main idea of the overall film leaves an impression of manipulating the time-travelling in X-Men: Days of Future Past, solely an easy way to reboot the entire franchise without a proper story line. Less darker than the other four installments, several twists are easily predicted and there is obviously a number of flaws and time paradox when the story progresses but the film is still an entertaining generic sci-fi. The scores of the film composed by Lorne Balfe are rather weak even though co-produced by Hans Zimmer, the performance of Jai Courtney as Kyle Reese is just alright, Arnold as T-800 is still the most entertaining element of the franchise with his fights and adorable robotic expressions but the pacing of the script has caused the lack of emotional engagement with Sarah Conner (Emilia Clarke). James Cameron says that this film is respectful to his first two installments back in 1984 and 1991 but action sequences are nothing new, CGIs do not improve much from previous installments and the visual effects seems a bit video game setting have overall disgraced his compliment.

Seth MacFarlene continues to tell a formulaic story maintaining the offensive, disgusting and ridiculous style of fun from the first Ted but choosing to legalise Ted as the main plot has drastically reduced the opportunity to present more jokes in a creative way, causing the film turns out to be slightly long and less funny. However, the story progresses in an organised structure, allowing plenty characters development with some surprise cameos appearance - Liam Neeson, Jimmy Kimmel and Morgan Freeman. The expression and movement of CGI-created Ted is still perfectly crafted just like he is truly exist as in first film, the chemistry between Wahlberg and Ted is still strong but the romance in between other characters is rather weak, the performance of all the main casts are good even the new comer Amanda Seyfried just fits well as part of the film. Without much difference from its predecessor, the sequel might not offer any fresh theme but its lightheartedly fun and surprisingly emotional ending is still worth to enjoy at the big screens.

It might not reach the inspiration and amusement level of Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park back in 1993 but all the hard work to keep the story faithfully to the original has overall expands the dinosaurs park into a world of an entertaining popcorn thriller. Having screenwriters from Rise of the Planet of the Apes' franchise, the engineering field of genetic modification works efficiently on the historic extincted animals and at the same time allows the plot to stress on the greediness of human nature, the ethical and morality behind as well as the dire consequences. Scores from Michael Giacchino mostly remain the original theme composed by John Williams, creating a sense of revisiting the old park while performance of Chris Pratt sparks with his serious characteristic throughout the entire film. The story is further well balanced with intense action sequences, fury battle between the dinosaurs and splendid visual effects although there's a few scenes of obvious CGI flaws. Overall, director Colin Trevorrow has transformed this mid-range Spielberg efforts into a satisfying adventure much better than the previous two sequels - The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III.

This feminist version of 007 James Bond might lack of originality on its first place but the outstanding chemistry and performance from the cast unexpectedly turn it into an entertaining film to enjoy. Director Paul Feig has turned both Melissa McCarthy and Jason Statham from their usual annoying and heroic characters to something surprising, added with intense woman empowered violence, comprehensive actions, hilarious and silly adults dialogues as well as unpredictable story line twisting have generated infectious laughter from the beginning till the end. While McCarthy spreads her comic showcase extremely well, her screen time together with Rose Byrne are genuinely funny and impressive thanks to the compelling relationships crafted between both of them eventhough it's antagonistic in nature. The film sounds ridiculous but the act of balancing the line between being a comedy and an action thriller that allow colorful characters development without any boundaries have overall qualified the film for another sequel.

Taken over by writer Leigh Whannell to direct the franchise, the theme does not divert too much from the previous two sequels, maintaining the usual plot development that James Wan did previously except a little bit surprising easy solution final act. Composer Joseph Bishara returns with his usual eerie, loud, noisy and irritating scores that help to boost the scare and the spooky effects, though not as terrifying as Conjuring and Insidious, it is still consider passable for its PG-13 ratings. Even though the performances from other casts are not really up to expectation, characters development are still fine while Lin Shaye's outstanding portrayal as Elise has given her sufficient room to be the lead role. It might not offer any fresh ideas to the franchise, but this warm-hearted frightening chapter stressing on the note of love and loss owns its moment that is not found in previous installments.

Disaster films are expected to have the same type of story development but this replication of 2009's massive "2012" has a stronger and slightly more emotional family dynamic that helps a bit in the chemistry between the characters and their respective performances. The film in a much smaller scale of destroying part of the US with earthquakes and tsunami, finds its success that not only Emmerich is the only director who should monopolize the genre. The outstanding quality, eye-popping CGIs, stunning visual effects of disruption, good shots of cinematography of the disruption, thrilling challenges for survival and powerful scores by Andrew Lockington are on par with "2012"; even the theory discussed in the film might seems erroneous but not entirely foolish and ridiculous. While it repeats the same mistakes - lacking of awareness and precautions on natural disasters, the spirits and the energy of the people to help each others during hard times is one of the most inspiring element that keeps engaging with audiences which is not found in other disaster films.

At its first glance, the creation of this visual popping utopia community full of futuristic illusions, advanced technology and gadgets might lead audiences to a high expectation that the adventure to explore this brand new world would be extremely exciting. However, it's a huge let down that despite the efforts, creativity and imagination of Brad Bird and his team, it's still hard to understand the reason to focus large portion on the earth rather than in the futuristic world they've crafted. At Disney's level, the idea of the plot is ambitious but sadly it starts to lost its direction at the very beginning and the tone as the story develops seems to be uneven, even the final act of the villain himself is wasted without proper addressing of intention and ended up in a disappointing formulaic way. Performances of Brittany Robertson and Raffey Cassidy are charming and entertaining together with the presence of George Clooney though his appearance seems to be involved in some lame action scenes, the musics from Michael Giacchino are beautiful and full of dreams but all of these are unable to save the flaws of this pointless story telling about the importance of being hopeful, optimistic and inspirational.

This 30 years old franchise has eventually roared its way returning to the big screen with a greater filming technology and a bigger budget, though the same director after so many years, George Miller still succeeds in bringing another great entertaining sequel that is worth waiting for its epic action sequences and spectacular visual effects. Setting in future, the plot's apocalyptic society and sexual politics are pretty straightforward; combining the insanity, hyper-accelerating and exhilarating actions without repetition of styles, all are presented in a creative way which is rarely seen in recent films. While it's not necessary anyway, the film does not have much of characters development but both Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, as well as the presence of Nicholas Hoult have a great screen time of heroic performances. Meanwhile, musics by Junkie XL sound loud, tremendous and powerful (likely influenced by Hans Zimmer's style) surprisingly suit the film well, including the cool and classic cinematography by John Seale, Miller is able to deliver more than what audiences might be expecting, even with overdose f action scenes, it is still effectively balanced with emotional moments and inspiring messages.

As ridiculous as it's always, James Wan steps in with a lot of surprise without revealing much in the trailers for the Furious fans base, proofing that the risk of franchise fatigue can be excluded as long as the the story keeps moving into new directions. The story succeeds by maintaining perfectly the racing cultures, hilarious fun and unstoppable action sequences from its predecessors, expanding into an explosive scale that audiences might feel that it owns some shades of Mission Impossible and The Dark Knight trilogy. Engagement achieved in this 15-year-old franchise plays an essential factor in delivering unexpected plot, good performance, characters development, cinematography, stunning visual effects, thrilling races and blasting fight; even Brian Tyler puts in an extreme heartfelt effort to bring more stylish, adrenaline-driven, impulsive yet emotional soundtracks. This seventh attempt of speeding appears to be the best entry since Fast 5, with an exception that the beautifully crafted ending may seems perfect as the final film, not only triggering the tears of audiences, but also intentionally a metaphor farewell to beloved Brian O'Conner and an impressive tribute for Paul Walker.

Home The creation of Boovs seems to be smaller in size, change of color and diverting appearance of the famous Shrek series; the whole thousands millions of Boovs replicate is however another repetitive mistake of the studio since Penguins of Madagascar trying to follow the success of Minions but it turns out to be just within expectation. The story is again the same formulaic of a main character being abandoned, experiencing some great lessons in the middle part, starting to brave itself and finishing happily by becoming the hero of everyone. Overwhelmed by its averageness in term of plot and character developments, the production team has indeed heavily focused in presenting nice, charming and enjoyable electronic pop-style musics throughout the entire film. Dreamworks might have lack in originality, but this simplistic benign alien invasions with rainbows of colors and cuteness is surprisingly a moving tale about friend and family that will certainly melt the hearts of all moviegoers of any age.

Setting in World War II, this attempt to decode the **** Enigma machine is somewhat an unusual surprisingly successful biography to present the remarkable life of an unknown person who have worked hard to change the world. The story is basically divided into three parts - life during young age, carrying out mission and after the end of war, in which the life of Alan Turing, who holds a strong belief of atheism, is beautifully crafted thanks to the great scores from Alexandre Desplat even though there are moments of jumping around from year-to-year in narrating. The powerful performance from Benedict Cumberbatch alone in portraying the awkwardness, triumphant, arrogant, strangeness, both physical and mental struggling of this notorious protagonist and at the same time well supported by great delivery from the supporting cast have elevated this epic material entirely. It is not just about history of winning the war, but this game is actually an imitation of life full with thoughtful dialogues and pioneering work that tells the foundation of computerisation which overall place this biopic a great position to deserve an Oscar nomination.

The Wachowski siblings has always gone huge in their production but this time slightly creative with their own original concept for a science fiction action flick. Aiming to be ambitious, it seems to be the prequel of the fifth story of Cloud Atlas, combining the elements of reincarnation, breeding, creating new lives as motive source and harvesting with their usual cinematography styles, but it turns out to be a bit complex for squeezing these daring ideas into a rushing two hours in which a number of unnecessarily silly parts should have been replaced to develop the whole universe in details. It has the nostalgic moments thanks to the amazing reconstruction of certain Cloud Atlas scores by Michael Giacchino, the performances from the cast however is a bit mixed - nothing surprise from Tatum and Kunis thanks to the cheesy dialogues, but Eddie Redmayne as the main antagonist role looks promising though with limited screen time. Overall, this new version of Star Wars space universe is still an enjoying formulaic blockbuster with its intense actions and eye popping visual effects even if the directors themselves ended up confused and misfiring ambitious at the wrong directions.

Before the successful of their big blockbusters, the Nolan's siblings explore the world of stage magicians by summarising the magic performances into three parts - the pledge, the turn and the prestige, which the movie further develops based on the structures although it starts off slowly with its own unique beginning. It seems that in most Nolan's film, the ending scene always appears at the opening but his narrative style however manages to make audiences to forget that regardless on the complexity of the content he tries to confuse us, it is actually a straightforward plot with the key answers already revealed indirectly at the first scene. The performances of Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman are extremely outstanding, thanks to the character developments that allow them to be both the antagonist and protagonist at the same time due to their eagerness for glory that they have eroded not only the morality of this magical great art, but to sacrifice their own lives and the one they love. The duality is a brilliant central concept of the film extracted in two different ways on both leads, it never stops engaging but to challenge the mindset of the viewers with several dark twisted plots and ambiguity. Although with a bit of weaker scores (due to no Hans Zimmer), Nolan's smart piece of magical art is interesting to stress that the trick of victory comes only when a person overlook and think that he has already won the rival.

This comic adaptation is full of hyper-stylized action sequences, graphic violence and smart humors that thrill the audience to feel unstoppable for 130 minutes of mission insanity. Though with the predictable core story, it does surprise with some plot twists for the second half and director Matthew Vaughn manages to overcome the short with well constructed plot without any drags, exciting old school action cinematography, stylish commercials fun of Guinness and McDonald as well as great electronic mix of scores by Henry Jackman and Matthew Margeson. The performance of the cast is perhaps one of the major factor that the film is extremely entertaining, it gathers four Kingsmen - Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Michael Caine and Samuel L. Jackson, in which each of them represent the characters that they are not used to be in other recent films, while it is also undeniable that young potential actor Taron Egerton sparks in his character as Eggsy too. With a super villain, this young James Bond spy genre looks high standard, smart, exciting and definitely the only great film to opt for this Valentine Day.

With a creative dark curse, Disney is brilliant to combine the fantasy of Cinderella, Jack the Giant Killer, Rapunzel and little red riding hood into one film with some surprising plot development and ended with an inspiring note - to make our wish to come true, it needs efforts. However, the first half of the story is well connected based on its rich materials but the second half shows some pacing issues and the existence of questionable moral etiquette stops it from becoming a classic of the genre as compared to Les Miserables. The great musical elements, the spirited performance of the superior cast, stunning visual effects and a number of heartfelt moments do help the film stands as an enjoyable musical flick, even if it doesn't work entirely as a whole.