Have been quite busy to catch any movies of late that many good ones have already come and gone. Sigh. So, I was rather thankful that I was still able to catch this movie last night, which happened to be one of a ‘must-see’movie on my movie list this year.

With a trailer featuring (one of my favs) Jim Carey, Jim Carey and Jim Carey!, a tagline that reads “not everything ends with a happy ending”, and a gothic, colourfulesque feel to the movie, who can resist right?

The movie details the lives of three orphans following a mysterious fire who swallowed up their homes and their parents with it. Three of them have a special gifts. Violet is an amazing inventor, Klaus is the knowledgeable bookworm and Sunny (the most adorable) is a little ‘Jaws’ and speaks a language only her siblings can understand. They are then escorted to their next of kin, a filthy-no good-money hungry-scum-villainous uncle Count Olaf (Jim Carey), who takes them into his care, with the hopes of landing himself with the wealth left behind by the children’s parents. Thus, begins a wonderful journey and adventure for the children as they try to escape from his devious plans, meet their other ‘relatives’, and try to solve the mystery of their parents’death.

Was I disappointed? Definitely NO! This was perhaps one of the most refreshing and entertaining movies I have watched in a long while.

It was grim, yet entertaining. Dark, yet bright with talented performances. Sad, yet happy at the right moments. Funny, yet serious with the message it carried.

The dialogue was crisp and complements the mood of the movie. I especially liked the script for the narrator (Jude Law), which was read out beautifully. Jim Carey was slightly over the top (reminiscent of Ace Ventura) at times but then again, that’s just him. All the children preformed remarkably well – their ability to hold a straight and shell-shocked face probably won it for them during the auditions. However, perhaps the most under-rated performance par excellence would be the cinematography. The way the cameras handled (or rather owned) the set was simply breathtaking. The facial close-ups, attention-to-detail shots, long range ‘whoa’clips. It was like watching a truly grim fairytale comic book brought to life in the most remarkable way. I also read somewhere that the writer has plans to write 13 (nothing puzzling here) books in this series. So, here’s hoping for more installments of this series to make it to the silver screens!

Summary:
Go watch it only if you are sick of watching all the goodie-goodie happy jolly feel-good movies. No lah, just kidding. Do go watch it before it ends its run in the cinemas. Highly recommended. It’s really entertaining and worth the fun and adventure. I certainly did.

Rating:

(Originally posted on allandog.multiply.com)

One of the world’s most loved and well-known musicals from the silver screen brought to life in theatre form. Hmmmmm. When I went to Istana Budaya last weekend to watch this transition take place, I didn’t really carry with me much hope that the theatre version would outdo (nor even come close to) Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer’s hit movie. Besides, they couldn’t really replicate the hills on stage, could they?

I found the first half of the show to be truly crisp and well choreographed. The songs were clear and managed to connect itself with the audience. I have to stress here that the connection was extremely important because almost (if not) all of the audience would be upon reflex be comparing what they saw on stage to what they remembered from the movie.

“Eh…how come this scene come first one..?”
“How come never sing I Have Confidence one?”
“Where’s the boat in the river scene?”

So it was great to see the audience settle down and accepting the theatre version. The children were also equally adorable and the production team even managed to thrown in a couple of new songs which were not heard in the movie version. An inclusion in a Special Edition Director’s Cut DVD in the near future perhaps?

After the intermission however, I just felt Maria’s voice was starting to sound a little flat. Wasn’t as strong as clear in the beginning but this was the half where Captain Von Trapp sort of took over the mike and carried it. Although this theatre version provided some variations from the movie version (eg. Rolf’s ‘assistance’ at the end, wedding scene, Maria leaving for the abbey scene, etc.) it was a great watch overall with splendid performances from the entire cast.

The only cons I had about the entire show would probably be some bad policing of the theatre rules by the organizers. There were a couple of boos boos but generally my enjoyment wasn’t affected. I shall mention those stuff in a future blog. Meanwhile, you may want to read what my sister (who seemed more affected by the organizer’s incompetence) has to say in her strong letter to The Star (published today)

Summary:

A definite, wonderful show to watch. Worth the moolah too since this one clocked in at close to 3 hours flat, inclusive of the 20+ minutes of intermission.

Rating:

(Originally posted on allandog.multiply.com)

Nicholas Cage returns to the action genre with this Indy Jones inspired-like flick from famed action producer Jerry B.

All in all, I thought it was really a great joyride, with the treasure clues setting an exciting pace for the audience to follow. If one were to analyze deeper, the entire movie would resemble an exciting 2-hour American history lesson. Would the US Govt use it to instill more history interest amongst its pre-schoolers, and risk an uprising of treasure hunters?…ha ha..

Another surprise here was that it was a rather smart film, something of a twist when I think of other Jerry B testosterone filled flicks like Con Air, The Rock and Armageddon.

Conclusion:

Loads of fun, and a modern reminder of how much fun the classic adventures of Indy Jones was. Although the logic and acting was a little thin, this movie is definitely worth a watch, and not surprising that it was the most successful action flick in the States last year.

Rating:

(Originally posted on allandog.multiply.com)