Pacific Rim

Finally, I watched Pacific Rim. My friends have been talking about this movie for a very long time and recommended me to watch this is IMAX 3D and I did and I am glad I took my friend’s advice.





1. It is a simple straight forward story. Monsters are trying to invade earth and unlike other movies, these monsters are from ocean. Similar to other movies like Avangers, these monsters have portals that allow them to come to earth. Destroying this portal will stop monsters from coming to earth and ending the apocalypse. Very very simple story, doesn’t require any brain and thinking. If you don’t want to think and just want to kill time, this is the movie you want to watch. This is it. Huge blockbuster and amazing graphics. They certainly did an amazing job. If you can’t speak English, you can still watch this movie and understand the storyline of this movie because it is that simple and obvious. But to be honest, who is watching this kind of movie hoping that this movie has a storyline? I guess the majority of the movie-watchers of these kind of genre movies are watching it to enjoy the graphics and fighting scenes. They don’t really expect this kind of movies to have a storyline. So for me, it didn’t bother me when the storyline was obvious and straight forward.



2. Low budget perhaps? or spent too much on graphics? the actors and actress are all unknown. I believe that this is the director’s choice and he has always been using unknown actors and actress on his movie. I have to say, I liked the main character. He was cute but because they are all unknown, I can’t help but notice and lack of acting. There is a reason why some Hollywood action movies use top class, high rank Hollywood stars. They do actions themselves and they are good at acting. You will directly see them as a character and create the link. This movie, I cannot connect myself with the actor or actress (the Japanese girl).



3. A bit disappointed that I cannot help but notice that director tried too hard create the obvious funny characters in this movie and I did not find them funny. They were just too obvious that made them unfunny and yet kind of wish they didn’t do what they did. Also, why trying to create a love line between main girl and main guy? That was so so so stupid. I feel like they tried to squeeze the love line but for this movie, it’s better not to have the love line. If you are going to make the love connection, do it right. Saying “I never thought of future but now I do” line was so weird and made me say “what are you doing?”. It was so stupid. the movie tried so hard to put all the elements that other action movies have and it failed. They looked awkward.

4. This movie certainly showed how IMAX 3D movie should be like. Amazing sound, amazing fighting scene, amazing 3D. They really do deserve an IMAX screen and 3D. I thought Avatar was the best IMAX 3D but now, I think this movie is probably better in terms of action genre movie. Really really good.



5. Obvious to tell that Chinese paid lots of movie production costs as half of the movies are set in China or Hong Kong. Also, funny how they are in Hong Kong and yet the girl was Japanese. Maybe it’s just how it was in the comic? but it certainly was weird.

6. So much things are going on the screen that you forget to eat your popcorn! I thought this was a total popcorn movie but it isn’t. You have to pay attention to what’s going on and you forget to use your hand to eat your popcorn. I would not suggest you to buy popcorn for this movie.

7. Finally, no product placement. I am not surprise about this because this movie was so focused on the robots and monsters, it will be weird for corporates to pay thousands and millions for their brands to be placed in this movie. The only thing this movie will do for the brand is to destroy their building when fighting and I bet corporates won’t pay thousands and millions for movie audiences to see their buildings destroyed.

Overall, 3.5/5 because of an awesome action and amazing graphics that made me think that this movie is worth $21.

The Great Gatsby

I know it's too late for the review for this movie. I've watched it a month ago but I watched it again yesterday, Sunday for my thesis.





I LOVE this movie. I was so into the characters when I watched the movie, even though it is 2 hours 30mins long, time flied and i felt it finished so fast !!

1. Very well actors. Very famous and known as amazing actors. So their portray of all the characters are AMAZING. But please be aware that I did not read the tick as book. So I had no idea about the story plot. I didn't know about the characters. BUT despite the fact that I did not know or because I didn't read the book, all the characters' acting were amazing and that I automatically created the invisible connection between me and the characters. I would probably react differently if I was Daisy or Nick. I'm not a huge omg fan of Leonardo but again, he proved how he is good at acting. He was AMAZING. This was probably in equivalent movie as Les Miserable which I LOVED in terms of singing and acting..oh my..acting..they were all amazing and so is this movie. Daisy was SO attractive and beautiful. I loved her voice and I am so happy that they cast her because she was amazing. Her baby face was soo good that made me somehow understand how Gatsby was in love with her and only in love with her and how he wanted to be rich for her. She is a glamorous and rich girl but in someway, very very mean (B%^&*) because she left Gatsby even though she knows how much he loves her and how he did everything for her and even took the blame of the car accident. Overall, the casts are amazing and they all proved how great they act.



2. Very well hidden product placement. As some of you know, Tiffany & Co, Prada created the jeweleries and party dresses, Brook's Brothers sponsored male costumes. This is part of the product placement but more hidden and used in advertisement purpose where audiences cannot tell which brands of dresses and jeweleries that the movie has used when they are watching the movie. It is the only way for the audiences to know that such brand was used and sponsored the movie is to use tie-in advertising. This is where Tiffany & Co and Brook's Brothers' main websites have all the products that was used in The Great Gatsby. On the movie, Yellow Dusenberg car, Moet champagne, Remington type write and Plaza hotel were the product placements. Moet was shown repetitively but the brand was only shown twice. It was interesting how the movie did not show the Moet brand itself but if you have noticed it once, you can tell that the entire champagne in this movie is Moet Champagne. Yellow Duesenberg car can only be noticed by people who are interested in old car, certainly not me. Remington type write was surprisingly used and shown on the movie twice. When Nick was typing and narrating his novel, The Great Gatsby.

3. Interesting structure of the storyline to deliver the message. At first, it starts with Nick telling the audience about how he hates New York before he meet Gatsby. Then the story about Gatsby is illustrated. The narration was purely on Nick and it was as if he was writing a book about Gatsby. So the movie was about Nick telling us about his side of story about Gatsby. Nick has experienced all sorts of stuff, he knows all the dark secrets.

4. I can't help but wonder what would happen if Nick has said that the women who died on a car crash was Tom's mistress. If Nick has told Myrtle's husband, Gatsby won't be shot to his death and Daisy could have called Gatsby and it would have been a happy ending. Also, what would happen if Nick has told Gatsby the truth about Daisy about how she has told Tom about the car accident and was relying on Tom, not Gatsby. Also, what would happen if Nick has not left Gatsby's house on the morning when Gatsby was shot on his pool. What would happen if Daisy and Gatsby ran away just like what Daisy has said on the party. Because I personally hate tragedy love story, I want to know more about what has happened after Daisy ran away from New York after Gatsby's death. Would she feel guilty? sad? or just cruel and live as if nothing has happened? and what was in the letter that made Daisy cry before her wedding five years ago?



5. At first time, I simply hated Daisy for leaving New York with Tom and not attending Gatsby's funeral and didn't come clean with what she did and how Gatsby is not the car driver and Gatsby has never had an affair with Myrtle. But for the second time, I hated Daisy because of how she refused to call Gatsby after hearing about how he got rich from Tom at Plaza. Gatsby only worked with those people so he can get rich so Daisy can look at him and live with him. Daisy just simply went back to Tom because Gatsby was not originally rich and is working for the gangs. She knew that she was the driver and she killed Myrtle and yet she hesitated to make a call because Gatsby was not from loyal family or rich originally. She is coward. If feels like she only cares about the loyal family who has money from generations for her sake. No wonder she looks so glamorous in the first place.



6. It made it feel like this was based on a true story. It was very realistic for me. This whole love story and car accident and Gatsby's death and about how Nick was writing this story into a book. Some parts of me still wishes that it was based on a true story because I wish Nick's story became legend like today and that everyone now thinks of Gatsby as a great man and Daisy knows about Tom and his mistress and how she killed his mistress. I hate injustice. Would have amazing to have the second movie about this but after how Nick has published this in to a book and how Daisy's life is now in trouble. It would be a good movie too but I know it won't happen because the book never had after story of Gatsby's death. so sad




7. Love the camera features, colour of the movie and the music. I bought the music CD as I am in love with Young and Beautiful song. It is amazing and really reminds me of Daisy. Jay Z has done an amazing job at the music. It was modern and yet fit with the timeline of the movie. Love the glamorous party and their costumes.I loved everything about this movie including the macaroon on the tea time with Gatsby and Daisy. They look delicious..



Overall, 4 out of 5 and definitely watch it in cinema.

Ghost (1990)

I've heard thousand times that Ghost is the must see 90s romantic movie. So I just decided to buy the DVD and watch it.

1. I personally do not like Demi Moore. Maybe because the first thing I heard about her was about her entire body plastic surgery. The very first movie starring her was the Charlie's Angel for me and that she was in bad girl. So seeing Demi Moore in her 20s and so pretty looking and young and kind and nice personality with her tough and rough voice, I was a bit shocked and had the prejudice that this character doesn't really suit her well. I don't know the 90s stars so I have no idea who was famous at that time but I rekon there might be a better actress than her to play this role. Her acting was average in my opinion. BUT the Oda Mae Brown - Whoopi Goldberg was AMAZING !!! She was the reason for me to watch this entire movie. There were no horrible acting actors. Everyone was decent and well represented their characters.

2. Despite the fact that it was created in 1990, the sound effect and visual effects were relatively good. The idea of ghost and heaven and hell was well illustrated and distinguished. I can guess that maybe one of the product teams was Christian as they expressed the existence of heaven and hell and showed who will enter heaven and who won't. My father was keep telling me how "new" and "fresh" this movie was at that time and I completely agree. It was interesting to watch. A bit obvious how it was going to end and how the story was going but it was interesting.

3. Will not ever watch this movie again with my parents for sure. Especially the first part, before Same dies, all that expression of love between Sam and Molly was too much for me to watch it with my parents.

4. Product placements were still there in this movie. For example, Reebok shoe box where Molly kepts Sam's stuff after he dies. There are more but Reebok was the obvious one.

If you haven't watched this movie. Watch it. It's worth it.

Three out of Five

The Heat

I watched The Heat today with my Thesis participant.

Trailer of The Heat

1. Interestingly  the movie is R13+. Then when I started watching the movie and after 5 minutes, I understood why it was age restricted. Lots of swearing... A LOT !! Then it was about drugs and guns..Then they drink A LOT irresponsibly...then they swear...then they shoot people...then cut throat by mistake...then blood..then swearing..etc etc. LOTS of swearing jokes and cruel jokes like killing jokes. I would understand if this movie is R16 because of extensive use of language and drug dealing story and shooting person on head.

2. Comedy? Action? It was hard to choose where this movie fits. For me, it was 50/50. LOT of actions in terms of gun, car chasing, car explosion. Then, it was funny.. cruel jokes and swearing jokes were hillarious at some time. I was attached at this movie in time where Sarah was cutting a chocking person's throat to get the hotcake out..with all that blood and knife..it was real..make you have goose-bump and go "ewwwwww". Then there was a scene where Sarah's thigh getting stabbed and that was "ouch" moment where I touched my thigh to cover that pain.

3. Sandra Block's movie. It was definitely a Sandra Block's movie. The character totally fit her, she was FBI agent, she was strict and nerdy and always following the procedure and rules, she works hard and she is bossy and no one like her. It was definitely a Sandra Block movie. Because it was so obvious that it's Sandra Block movie from the introduction of the movie, the storyline was obvious. So I won't blame if some people think of this movie as boring and same as other comedy movies and typical Hollywood comedy action movie because it was. It totally was. Bad guy getting killed at the end, Main characters have hard time to get to know each other at first (they both have completely different personality) then when they are close, something else happens to one of the characters then they fight then they get back again and this time, they do it right and they find the bad guy and at the end they kill them and maintain their relationship. It was sooooo obvious. Some bits unexpected was the car explosion, Denny's scene, and the boss of bad guy. Some scenes were just not even related to the main plot and yet were in the movie because those scenes were funny. For example, Denny's scene was completely irrelevant in my opinion. How is a random person chocking got to do with catching the drug dealer? It was just weird.

4. Lots of product placement. Starting from Mercede Benz, there were Nikon, iMac, Rambler, Coke, Sprite,Denny's, Lacoste, Nike, Heinz, Blackberry, Volvo, Bank of America, eBay, Nissan and so on. Obvious brands were Mercede Benz, Rambler, Coke, Sprite, Denny's and eBay. I can only guess that Mercede Benz paid some on movie production company because the movie was started with showing their brands. Right on the screen. A very big Mercede Benz logo. Then there was Coca-Cola. Family meal time scene and two huge (2L)  bottles of Coke and Sprite were placed on the table. No one was drinking it but it was there and it was obvious. Also, Coca-Cola's vending machine was placed as a background on jail scene when Jason meets his sister (Mullins).I think the purpose of showing the Coke was because all people including people who swears a lot and classified as "violent" and "low-class" and "uneducated" are still drinking Coke and hence Coke is everyone's brand. My friend even picked out that on Coke's bottle, there was an Olympic logo on it, showing that the film must have been filmed during the Olympic time, which was last year. I didn't see it but if was interesting how my friend noticed the Olympic logo, which kind of illustrates that the Coke's bottle was shown closely to be able for a person to see it in such a detail and might have shown more than once. Denny's might have paid fortune since there was a whole scene about it in that place with menu that says Denny's and Denny's restaurant appeared on movie and then the funny scene of a chocking guy and Sarah's failed emergency "operation" happend at Denny's. I called this scene a "Denny's scene" and my friend understood me instantly. If Denny's purpose was to increase the brand awareness, they definitely did. Interesting use of product placement.

5. I would personally not recommend this movie. It was funny but I don't think it's worth the movie ticket unless you have student vip card and can watch it for $10 like me. It was worth $10 but it is not worth $14 for student. I would rather recommend my friends to watch something else for $14 at cinema since a lot of good movies are showing currently. For example, The Great Gatsby, World War Z, Despicable Me 2 and Monsters University.

Overall, 3 out of 5.

World War Z

I have watched this movie three times now. Twice in 2D and once in 3D. This movie is part of my Master's Thesis.

Trailer of World War Z

1. As for a zombie movie (I am not a huge fan but don't mind watching this genre), this is less gross and disgusting movie. Zombieland was the most gross zombie movie ever ! and compare to that movie, World War Z is average. The only gross scene is where the zombie grins the teeth at the end when Gerry (Brad Pitt) is locked inside the lab.

2. Personally, excellent use of product placement. Pepsi just appears on the movie all of a sudden and randomly Gerry (Brad Pitt) decides to drink Pepsi after a near death experience with one zombie. This was so random that I decided to use this movie in my research to see how my participants will react on Pepsi in this scene. Beef Jerky was also placed in the movie when Gerry's family stole a camping van on their first escape from zombies in Manhattan. This brand was only showed like 5 seconds but if you have consumed this brand before, you will easily notice this product. A brand of water was also placed as a background in the movie inside the ship. No one in my friends and family noticed this but it was there. Obvious product placement other than Pepsi was the Belarus Airlines. The brand was placed and shown for good seconds where all the movie consumers must have seen this brand as it was the plane the Gerry caught after his airplane pilot  left without him. Mountain Dew was also in the movie when Gerry kicked the Mountain Dew can when they are suppose to make zero noise to stimulate 80 zombies in WHO building B. That scene was suspense and I automatically hold my breathe when he kicked the can. Even though the place and lighting was dark, I could still see green can with Mountain Dew brand on it.

3. More realistic (character-wise) than any Tom Cruise or James Bond movies. Tom Cruise and James Bond never die or injure in any movies. They are like superheroes. They go through bullets and every bullets they fire all hit enemies. It was so unrealistic. However, here, Brad Pitt injures and has experience of getting zombie's blood (or saliva) in his mouth.

4. Best suspense zombie movie. This movie is all about suspense. When zombie attacks Brand Pitt's family on apartment, when his wife calls him in the middle of escape plan in SouthKorea, when zombies climb over the Israel's wall and falls inside the walls and destroys the whole city, when the plane crashs because there was one zombie who bited everyone on the plane except him and his soldier. If you think about it, this can be seen as a bit unrealistic as he survived the plane crash and he didn't get bitten by zombies in the plane. But, compare to other movies with top Hollywood actors (I'm using Tom Cruise because his mission impossible movies are just so fake), at least Brand Pitt got some sharp plane equipment stuck on this stomach during the plane crash, he was just like normal (but can fight) person. Everyone in the cinema jumped at least once in this movie and I heard some people swearing as they got scared.

5. Good apocalyptic genre movie. It has storyline. It doesn't end blandly like Spielberg's War of World starring Dakota Fanning and  Tom Cruise. That movie was so bad at the end, I still don't understand why machines just died all of a sudden. But World War Z has the storyline and that literally explains the "cure" from becoming a zombie - not to have healthy body and inject yourself with some disease. It made sense for me and actually convinced me as I went "ahhh" when Brand Pitt (Gerry) explains his theory to WHO scientists.

6. 3D was okay. But I would personally prefer 2D since it's a zombie movie. There was one scene was zombie was falling down and on 3D, it was like as if zombie was falling on your face. That was epic. Everyone jumped. Other than that, it was same as watching it in 2D.

Overall, 3.5/5

Has storyline, suspense, and good zombie movie.

Monsters University

YES. I watched Monsters University in ADVANCED SCREENING !!

To be honest, I haven't really finished the full Monsters Inc movie..I remember watching it but I don't remember finishing the movie. So I always had the impression that this movie is somehow "boring".

For a person who had this impression about Monsters movie, I wasn't a fan of watching this one but when I heard that this movie is about University, I somehow thought it's interesting. As I am an university student for five years and had a semester experience of studying at US university, I certainly had an impression and curiosity of how this movie will be in terms of the cultural education system.

Overall, despite the fact that I thought the previous movie was "boring", this one was certainly not boring and instead, interesting. I liked it .

Monsters University Trailer on YouTube

1. Brilliant plot - use of university. Uni students like myself will definitely have some sort of attachment (idea of "self") in this movie and the character. Since every characters have different personalities, I believe people will definitely see themselves and attach themselves with the movie. For example, I am not smart. I am a hard worker. I am like Mike. Every grades I get, I earned it so I deserve them. I study A LOT compare to other students who know how to study. So when Mike says he works hard and that people like Sullivan don't understand him, I agreed with him from the deepest of my heart. So from this invisible self image and attachement to character (who happen to be the main character), I had positive movie experiences. I loved it. By creating this "attachement", audiences will engage with the movie and character and will eventually create positive movie experiences. Also, by creating the movie in university context, they seem to have enlarged their main target market. I believe their previous movie had a focus group of teenagers and children. However, by creating the movie in university context, they have clearly illustrated that they are targeting university students, graduate students and the moviegoers who have been to university. See how they have just created a huge target market? Monsters movie is no longer a "children" movie. It's now a "student" movie where any students from any education level can watch.

2. Monsters University = Stuff to sell in real life = profit for the movie product company. When I was watching the movie, I cannot help but think "I want that". Everything in this movie has Monsters University logo (MU), just like our real life universities have. Books, Hats, T-shirts, Joursey etc etc. This means that when this movie becomes box office movie, film production company can and will (trust me) create all this goods with MU logo on it. I know it already has MU T-shirt, Water bottle, Pen, Hat and so on. The company could even produce the MU jacket and sell it in high price. But they must be cautious about their target market. IF their target market for this movie is on university students, do you really think university students will purchase and actually wear this MU jacket? I don't think so..? But if their target market is teenagers, they might. This movie is rated as G, for children. Also it's an animation movie. People who actually buy stuff are mainly teenagers and children less than 10 years old. For college students, buying MU goods could mean something or this movie could open their eyes and expectations of what the real uni will be like because in America, this is somehow true. But for primary students, I don't think they will have an attachement with this movie and therefore have "must purchase" motivation to convince their parents to buy the good for them.

3. No product placement. ZERO. Which means good really for this movie because the movie clearly differentiates the Monster world and Human world. So if there were any brands from human world, it would not make any sense. Then how the company paid for this movie production? This movie must have cost fortune to make. But remember, this movie is animation. Company produces goods and sell them to their target markets. This sales of goods can pay off the company's movie production. Even the special Monster popcorn combo can be produced and sold (Despicable Me 2 had special minion cup and it got sold out quickly !!). From this, maybe they don't really need product placement to cover up their cost of movie production. All they need is consumers to purchase the movie goods.

4. It will be interesting to see the next series of Monsters movie. First one was about the Monsters company, then now university. And the movie was linked very well that I don't think there will be any movie in between. After getting expelled from university, Sullivan and Mike were working at Monsters company as mail delivery, cleaning, screaming can storage jobs and finally became the scarer in the company.

In conclusion, THREE out of five (3/5). I would recommend my friends (recent graduates, university students, college students, and anyone who loved and enjoyed Monster Inc the first movie) to watch Monsters University.

Despicable Me 2

Yes. I watched Despicable Me 2. and Yes, in advanced screening !

Funny because less than an hour before this movie, I came out from different cinema as I watched Man of Steel with my other friends !! ( Talk about crazy movie fan !). I shall write Man of Steel movie review after this.

Here it is.

If you haven't watched Despicable Me 1, go and watch it ! as the storyline will continue from the first movie.

Overall : Funny as it should be. Cute as it should be. Meets my expectation.

1. The movie was consistent with the use of similar humour code from Despicable Me 1. I believe that since the popularity of the minions and Agnes (the girl with "It's so fluffy I'm ganna die!") were huge in first movie, it influenced their level of roles in the second movie. Meaning that minions were prime story plot in the movie (as they became kidnaped, injected by weird chemical and became aggressive, ugly purple minions) while Agnes had her birthday party in the movie. It was good because I personally love Agnes and minions so I don't mind watching them in the movie more often than Gru. But, I do mind getting too much roles that those two characters have in the movie. I would understand if someone would say that it was too much perhaps because in other point of view, they were in the movie too much while the official main character is Gru and his "girlfriend" Lucy.

2. This movie has some family theme as Gru has now officially becoming a dad to Agnes, Margo and Edith. This is shown when Gru cares about Margo's relationship with her first boyfriend. Gru is doing what the normal dad will do for his little girl- separating them from each other when they are dancing, getting revenge and be there for her when she got dumped by the guy from another girl, be jealous of the new boyfriend. This is the main change of the character Gru where in the first movie, he was evil. Here in the second movie, he is now a dad, working as a non-evil side (ie good side).

3. The movie has illustrated what 3D animation movie should like, especially at the end of the credit where three minions are playing themselves and blowing party sticks on the screen. If you watch it in 3D, that party stick will come right on your face, which is cool.

4. Some parody of songs. YMCA and I swear sang by minions and I swear.
I was expecting the famous Banana and Potato song by minions on the screen but it wasn't shown. But still satisfied as I got to listen to two more songs from cute minions !

If you haven't watched the Banana song. Youtube Banana Despicable Me 2 but I must warn you. It's very addictive !!

5. No product placement in this movie ! which is disappointing for me personally as I cannot use this for my master's thesis research... But I believe it makes sense that the movie didn't have it because the storyline and the characters are very unrealistic to be true and hence, the purpose of the product placement in this movie will have no effect, or worse, have negative effect on consumers. But, I wonder..If there was a product placement, would it increase the realism of the story and the main audiences - kids - have any opinions about the brands? For adults, the brands may be considered as unnecessary but remember, this movie is targeted at kids, children, not adults. So as for the main target consumers, would they think it's unnecessary for characters like Agnes to eat Oreo and drink milk, or Edith wearing Nike shoes? Kids are different to adults. They think and behave differently. So there might be a slightest chance of the kids finding this product placement as "cool" and "realism" and that they want to have that Nike shoes, or eat Orea like Agnes do in a real life.

In conclusion, I will give this movie THREE out of Five (3/5). It was funny and cute, but not hilarious funny that will make me laugh or deadly cute like "It's so Fluffy I'm ganna die" cute. It was just funny and cute.