American Sniper

Based on a true story, American Sniper is a good movie. In fact, this movie is better than Taken 3.
In the beginning of the movie, it was exactly same as the movie trailer. So no surprises there. However, after the movie trailer part, for about 15 - 30 minutes, the movie went back to USA and told the story of how the main character ended up in Iraq.

During that story, I was quite shock at how long they did not show the war part especially because I expected this movie as action and drama movie but action heavy movie not drama heavy movie. I was wrong. This movie is drama heavy movie with a bit of action. However, it was a good quality action. The gun trigger sound was so real and the camera angles were so close to the character that I sometimes closed my eyes as I felt I was the one who was pulling the trigger or getting shot.

The ending was an absolute shocking. I never expected that ending and it was even a shock because it was based on a true story. I felt so sad for the wife and also quite angry at the psychopath. I mean, he served his country and he did save a lot of American soldiers so why would American ex-military man kill the hero? What is wrong with him? I mean, Chris Kyle was trying to help him. HELP him!!!! argh so frustrated. Because ending was absolutely mind blowing for me personally, I like this movie. I ended up Googling Chris Kyle to find out how he died and whether the psychopath has brought justice.

Bradley Cooper is such an amazing actor in this movie. He does look similar to the actual character but man, he acted goooood. I mean GOOD. I failed to acknowledge that his guy is the same guy from Hunger Game. He is a keeper in Hollywood. Also, Sienna Miler was so pretty and she acted good too. She was very committed in her character. All the actors in this movie were good and helped the audiences to focus on the storyline.

The movie clearly illustrated Chris Kyle's struggle of getting use to the reality life when he was deployed back to USA. Bradley Cooper acted really well as I was tensed when I saw him in the movie. I felt like he was going to break down. I can clearly tell that he is not used to the real life. He even looked calm and "home" when he went back to Iraq. Then the turning point was definite - when his friends were begin to die in Iraq - it was clear that Chris had enough of the war and that he wanted to change and get back to his family. The way the movie portrayed this emotional change was amazing, thanks to Bradley Cooper with strong acting, Clint Eastwood with good camera angles, and writers of the movie.

Now the product placement in this movie was decent. I saw Toyota car in Iraq scene - where the Iraq soldiers were driving Toyota's truck during fighting scene. I also noticed that the phone that Bradley Cooper used in USA was Motorola. The brand wasn't shown but the shape of the phone was the popular Motorola folder phone. Then during the car garage scene, I noticed several brands on windows but it seemed it was there on the scene, not on purpose. Other than Toyota (which I found it quite random as the brand name just stood out), none of the brands stood out and ruined the movie setting. Oh, the beer that the characters were drinking in the movie was all the same -budweiser.

Overall, I would rate this movie as 4/5. Strong acting, good camera techniques, good graphics and good sounds. Also, fabulous storyline.

Big Hero 6

In New Zealand, this movie was released on boxing day - 26th December 2014.

I watched this movie on 13th January 2015. So it is a bit late movie review but I had to write this because it is now one of my favourite movie !

It didn't have any product placement so I was glad since product placement in animation is really really weird - some might say that having a real brand in the animations might bring more reality feeling but seriously, it's an animation. It is not real.

This movie is supposedly set in San Francisco but has Tokyo name too - which makes that in future, Japan and America somehow shares a country - making the city name as San Franciskyo. It is quite difficult to say but smart for producer's perspective. It is also interesting why producers chose Tokyo - I mean, we have China, Korea, Singapore etc. Maybe simply because the author of this Manga is Japanese? Why Japan?

One thing that I liked about this movie is that this movie has Asian characters. Not just one, but several. In fact, the main character, Hiro, is Japanese (as he has Japanese name), an Asian. I have never seen Asian as main character in Hollywood movie except Mulan, which is Disney and is set in China. So it is really intersting how Hollywood acknowledged the importance of different races - maybe. Maybe they saw that Asian population is actually large and can become their target audiences or maybe because one of the producers is Asian and took his idea of having an Asian character. Who cares right? this movie is really really well made and fun. 

One strange thing about the movie is that it is quite long compared to other animation movies. The average animation movies are usually 90minutes. This movie is almost 120minutes. It felt quite long too. They have several fight scenes (against the "monster" who stole main character's genius scientific machine) instead of one, which is usually what the movie has - one fight scene.

One thing I did not except was that the Big Hero 6 will continue to do hero works. I excepted that Hiro will recreate Baymax and also create bunch more to accomplish his brother's dream. But noooo, he created Baymax and that was it. He did not create more of Baymax. He only wants to have Baymax to himself !!!! that selfish boy - I want it too.

I will rate this movie 4.5/5 because I did feel that the movie was quite long and I did wonder for a second about "when is this gonna end?". It was really really good movie - if you like animation movies like Frozen, go to cinema and watch Big Hero 6, or download it on iTunes and watch it. You won't regret it. 

You will say "ahh" or "awh" or "OMG so cute" and laugh out loud like "hahaha" or "hehehe" or "umhahaha (maybe)". It has funny moment, cute moments. It also has sad moment at the end but I did not cry so it is not that sad - you can hold on your tears on other movies. 

One was word - I WANT BAYMAX and Hiro has the tech that Iron Man has in his garage.

sex tape

I personally enjoyed watching Bad Teacher where Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel were both starring. They were funny and really cute together in the movie. ONLY IN THE MOVIE. So when I saw the trailer of Sex tape, I didn't really care about the storyline and the inappropriateness of butt showing, I just cared about how these two are acting together again.

So I decided to pay for the movie and watched it in cinema.

Turns out, whoa. When I say whoa, I mean, I did not expect this much level of sex scene plus, the number of product placement, particularly Apple, shown and spoken in this movie.

1. As the trailer showed, it was VERY obvious that the whole accident began by iCloud and of course, iCloud is Apple's technology that allows each devices to sync together so users can access to all their files on different devices. In this movie, the reputation of iCloud was not that great considering how it synced the sex tape and brought catastrophe in this family. However, the movie literally taught the movie audiences about what iCloud is, what it does, and even how they can delete the files that were synced in one computer. They literally say the steps of how to delete the file that were synced to all devices - because that is how the characters deleted their sex tape.

2. When the movie is about iCloud's syncing skills, it is obvious how much and many times Apple products will appear in this movie. It starts of by Annie typing the blog by using Mac, Apple product number one. Then, Jay buys iPad, Apple product number two. They say iPad so many times, and the product it actually the centre of the movie --> Annie and Jay drive around, knocking their friends and family's house door and ask for their iPad back so they can delete their sex tape that was synced by iCloud. There. There is the whole story plot. seriously. This is it. But they did a good job of trying to cover the Apple logo, although everyone knows the design of Apple by now so when they look at it, people automatically knows that the brand is Apple.

3. Verbal product placement - Bed bath and beyond and Project runaway.

4. So, what transportation did they use when they retrieved their iPads? good question! GMC car. They own GMC car. They drive around with their kids, they use it to break the garage and enter the porn company - and yes the car is completely fine. No damage at all.

5. Then again, the centre of this movie- pornsites. They mention so many porn sites where I am shocked of how many there are. I have never heard of them and  I was just like whattttt did they just make it up? but I think they just googled them?? But omg, they mentioned more than 20 pornsites.

6. It seems that when people listen to music or wants to wear earphone or earplugs, they just happen to use Beats by Dr. Dre and this movie is not an exception. Jay wears Beats earphone and if you know this brand, you will automatically notice it like me.

One last thing to say, I personally think this movie should be rated more than R16 judging by the number of word "sex" and "porn" mentioned, appearances of naked butts, and other other things that I cannot possibly type. But I kind of understand why the movie rating was R16 and not R18 because to all of us, R18 is like super super adult movie. But this movie was funny and inappropriate. So I understand the struggle of how to rate this movie but if I were the movie rater, I would rate as R18.

2/5 but product placement, 4/5.

Gravity

I have been waiting for this movie for so long because of Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. Yet, with my high expectation, this movie has certainly exceeded my expectation and blowed my mind.

1. Some point of shoot camera technique to make audience feel like we are Sandra Bullock, who is lost in the universe for about five minutes, was breath-taking. I heard few people gasping while they were watching Sandra Bullock spinning and getting far away from earth and one of those people was me. It was amazing. spinning made it a bit dizzy that I was glad for a few seconds that I didn't watch this in imax. But having said that, it would have been amazing if I watched this movie in Imax. Beside the amazing camera angle, the graphics were breath taking too- earth, sunrise, green lights, explosion. Thanks to the amazing director and amazing actress and supporting actor, the quality of this movie is just amazing. When George Clooney sacrifices himself to save Ryan (Sandra Bullock), it reminded a little of Day After Tomorrow's scene (I don't know why). I was nearly crying and I had to physically stop my brain from thinking about what's happening to George Clooney right now when the movie was focusing on Ryan.

2. Even though the movie was well made, I am personally not sure of the whole explosion. I think it was a bit too much. When Ryan was about to take a breath, there was a fire, then her spaceship had no fuel, then she had to fly to Chinese's spaceship etc. It was happening so much at once, I got frustrated. Perhaps a bit of normal casual life in universe in first scene (ie Ryan floating on the spaceship, eating and sleeping) may be nice as I wanted to see what it's like to eat, sleep and play in spaceship. Also, it would have been nice to see Ryan actually getting rescued at the end.

3. When I saw the trailer of this movie, I thought this movie will have some flashbacks of what they were doing on earth. So I initially expected to see some product placement. However, there was no flashbacks. There was no eating. There was no normal casual life. There was no product placement. It was fully about explosion and Ryan trying to going back to earth. 

4. 3D was amazing. Some scenes, I closed my eyes and moved my head to get away from the explosion particles flying towards me. It was real and it was scary, which makes it awesome to watch it in 3D. It would have been an absolute beauty if I watched this in Imax. I think it's the second best movie to watch in Imax, first being Avatar.

Highly recommend you to watch this in 3D, and if you are interested in space/universe, maybe watch it in imax too. 4.5/5

Turbo

Product placement in animation movie. Here We Go !!

1. It's an animation movie. Obviously. and just like any other animation movies, it is targeted towards kids. obviously. Then it is funny. obviously again. But, it is good. it has good storyline and have some themes about family love, friendship, hope and dream, which plays well all together in this one 1.5hrs long movie where kids can really enjoy it. I would recommend to watch it with kids. But, I personally don't think adults and teenagers will enjoy it. I found myself thinking "oh my god, this is so childish" while I'm watching this movie. Normally, I like Shrek, Despicable Me and Meatball movies, and I don't usually think of those movies as childish since I enjoyed it very much. But somehow, Turbo, I found it childish. Maybe it's because of the ending scene when Turbo wins the race (spoiler alert) and how he wins the race is a bit too obvious. 

2. Good music and good strong unique characters. They used very famous songs and also created really really good music. I think it's because Snoop Dog was in it, so the stuff he said in his character was somehow rhymed really well (although it was weird his voice was in pink snail). It is the first time I ever felt like I want to buy animation movie's music album. It was THAT good. 

3. YES. It has product placement !!! Even though the movie is about snail, it is set in modern time (ie right now). Hence, all the brands that are shown is used by humans. But still, there are product placements (yes, I mean plural !) in this movie. This means that they are all paid placements since animators have to add those brands in when they create this film. But it could be seen necessary for some to increase the realism because normally in our lives, car racing have millions of sponsorships and the racing car usually contains multiple sponsored brands. So to show this, maybe this animation movie have used product placement. They had Chevrolet car logo, hp laptop, AAA, and Verizon multiple times that it was not hard at all to find them in this movie. I just wonder why they haven't used the sports drink as a product placement in this film when they used all these other product types? For example, Adrenalode drink could have been a real product such as Mother, or V or even a Powerade. Why did they decide not to use this when they have consistently showed this brand more than other product placement? Interesting..

Overall, 3/5

White House Down

Watched this movie as a celebration for father's day. It was also on an advanced screening with a special price of $10 !!  Here we go go go

1. This movie is once again related to USA's white house falling apart and USA in crisis where hundreds of army officers can't do anything and yet here is one man. one single man. who happens to be in the white house when crisis happened, is saving the president and is saving USA. I'm not talking about Olympus has Fallen. I'm talking about White House Down. and yes. This movie is exactly the same genre, same scenario and same plot as Olympus has Fallen (except that this movie is USA vs USA, not North Korea vs USA). So if you enjoyed watching Olympus Has Fallen, definitely watch this. This one is exactly like that movie but funnier. However, if you thought Olympus has Fallen was waste of money, then don't watch it. You will waste your money on this movie too (unless you are a fan of Channing Tatum or Jamie Foxx).

                      

2. Action. A hard core action movie. Lots of fighting and killing and explosions. This killing scene is not as real and cruel looking as Olympus has Fallen. But, it's definitely more funny compare to Olympus has Fallen. Lots of chuckle jokes that made everyone laugh in the cinema except my parents who didn't understand the jokes.

3. So unrealistic in terms of how president survives from a gun shot because of a watch and how Cale doesn't get shot, not even once when he is fighting against heavily armed men by himself. Another unrealistic thing is the character Emily. Her character just ruined everything for me in this movie but I see how important her role is in this movie. I mean, who waves the flag and to stop the missile from bombing the white house and people's reaction towards her was hilarious (in terms of how they wowed and well-done her and how she suddenly became a hero).

 

4. Not surprising, there was some use of product placement. Starting from Two News, Robitussin (verbal placement), Chevrolet, Sony, Nike Jordan and Kleenex. As I am a Kleenex user, I immediately recognised the brand when I saw the box of tissue. I definitely think the phone was product placement too but I don't know the exact brand. It's definitely not Samsung or iPhone. It's either Motorola or Nokia or HTC.

 

Conclusion,  I personally liked the action scenes and straightforward storyline. Nothing confusing even though they tried to make it confusing, it was just so obivous (as I watched hundreds of movies like this). 

3/5

Elysium

This movie I watched last week as well. This movie was way BETTER than The Mortal Instruments. I can't even compare the quality of this movie with that movie.

1. I LOVE Matt Damon. He is hot, cute, good actor and good personality too. He played the role so well and I just completely thought of him as the character. He made me connect to the movie itself and that was brilliant. Using him instead of other action actors was a brilliant job because there is not other action actor who can act and do good action scenes like him. 

2. I like the storyline and the message of how he sacrified himself to save his first lover's daughter and to bring justice for earth people. It was sad that he had to die but I understand his choice. The movie had the theme of betrayal, sacrifice, power corruption, discrimination and all other serious themes and all of these themes were portrayed and played out really nicely and made the movie really good. It was also interesting to see how political people treated earth people, especially the people with criminal record. It was like if you have criminal record, you are a criminal. That's it. You cannot be a changed person. You are still a criminal. Also, how political people are all living in Elysium and uses robots instead of real people on earth. So instead of real police men, its the police robot. Instead of real stuff on government office, its the robot who don't listen to people's story. It's also interesting to see how this movie was based on South America. For example, they speak Spanish or Portuguese. All the people on earth was not European white people. Those people are living in Elysium.

3. The animation of the movie was well created. Elysium was so well portrayed and looked so real. Also, the action scenes and all the gun fighting and explosions looked real and well filmed. It was definitely a cinema movie where big screen and good sound system were necessary to  100% enjoy this movie. It was very creative as well in terms of how they created the structure Elysium.

4. The movie made me think. It made me think where I would be if I was living in that period. Would I be classified as a high living class and hence will be living on Elysium? or will I be living on earth? Also, how expensive was it to live in Elysium? how much high class does people have to be to be eligible to live in Elysium? Why isn't Elysium people not care about people on earth? Why is Elysium people do not send their first aid robots on earth to help the sick people on earth when they have all the equipment? Is it simply because they don't want to help them out because its not a good "investment"? do they really all just care about profit and money? So what happens now? Who is going to rule Elysium and Earth? There was so many questions and possibilities, I loved it. All the questions were not directly connected with the movie and instead, the questions were just "side" questions where I think in depth to make this movie more realistic in my head. If this was like Star Wars and has sequels and hence be more depth in terms of illustrating the life in earth and Elysium, it would have been perfect. I would pay to see more. However, this movie was just created for once. It wasn't created for a sequel purpose and hence, my questions cannot be answered.

5. I could notice some of the product placement. For example, Adidas shoes, GMC car, Bugatti, Bulgari and so on. I personally think it was unnecessary to show the brand in this movie as this was equivalent of post-apocalyptic movie. Yes, some people still live in earth, but they are all poor. So showing the car brand may be okay as it could have just been "stolen" or just using the existing car and that car happened to be GMC, but showing Adidas shoes and Bulgari was a bit too much in my opinion. Where did Matt got money to buy Adidas shoes? and where is Adidas shoes stores? Where is Bulgari, high class luxury brand on earth? if it was not on earth, is there Bulgari store on Elysium? the movie didn't even show Elysium people more than five minutes. So personally, this movie doesn't really need product placement to show the realism of the movie. 

6. you can also definitely tell that this was directed by District 9 director. A lot of similarity between these two movies in terms of big guns, camera angles and how camera moves and doesn't hold still, background colour (dustry, dirty, brown and dark), and setting of the movie.

Overall, 4/5. Good movie as it had good actor who made me connect with the character, solid storyline that made me think about the movie afterwards and kept me concentrated for two whole hours.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

Apologies for late review. I watched this movie last week but I have been so busy with my job hunting. Plus I got sick for few days and my brain didn't work properly. So here we go for the late review of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.

1. If you are Twilight fan who loves whole crazy love-in-first-sight, you will like this movie. watch it. But, if you don't like Twilight and doesn't like this crazy childish love-in-first-sight, you will hate this movie. don't watch it. Personally, it was okay because (1) I don't mind this childish movie. I only paid $8.50 for this movie ticket. (2) My friend who hates Twilight was sitting next to me and she doesn't eat popcorn but through out this movie, she was growling and ate popcorn. It was just hilarious to look at her reaction so my general movie experience for this movie was okay. (3) The main character guy's accent was H.O.T. I didn't find him hot but his voice and his accent was dead gorgeous. I personally love British accent and he had one. It was so good to listen to his hot accent.

2. This movie is a combination of other movies. Remake, if you prefer. This movie had a bit of Harry Potter, Twilight, High School Musical and other Fantasy movies. Harry Potter in terms of how there is one earth but different world (Harry Potter, it's wizard world and Muggles. For this, they call normal people as Mundane). Then this movie has magic. Then demons and angels (shadow hunter). Twilight in terms of how two characters, a girl and a boy fell in love at first sight. Then they have this tension and scenes where it looks like they are going to kiss (like when Clary falls on top of Jace, that was like "wow.. really? so obvious!") and when they go to roof top and the water sprays the garden, they get wet so they laugh and they kiss (this scene reminded me of High School Musical 3). 

3. The movie in overall is CHILDISH. I'm not talking about childish but okay to watch, I'm talking about, if you are in a workplace or even in tertiary education, you will not like this movie childish. It was SO childish and SO obvious. Nothing new and surprising came up. Instead, when you think "is this going to happen?", it happened. For example, I thought "they are gonna kiss", they kissed. When Simon came out from Clary's bedroom, I thought "they are gonna fight", they fought. Then when Blackwell came out and talks to Clary, I was like "don't tell me they are father and daughter", they were father and daughter. When Alaric told Clary a story of how she had brother, I was like "don't tell me it's Jace", it was Jace. Because all of these obvious and childish stuff in this movie, I couldn't concentrate the story plot of this movie.

4. This movie has everything abnormal. Shadow Hunter tattoos their body as if this was a normal thing to do. They have this symbol all over their body. I didn't read this book so I have no idea if that means anything but as an audience who didn't read the book, it just looked as if they just tattoo their body for fun. Funny thing is that the movie actually shows them tattooing. Imagine what young audiences will think of tattoo after this movie.Yes, many people these days do tattoo. But, it's not something that disappears. It lasts for the rest of your life. So personally, I think you need to be really really be careful when you are doing tattoo because you can't just erase it if you don't like it anymore. It's going to stay on your body for the rest of your life. This movie has made the tattoo look so easy, it could potentially deliver the wrong message to younger audiences. Second, this movie has gay concept included. I have never seen a fantasy movie that includes gay concept as this is still a very sensitive issue. Then they have brother and sister fall in love. Well, they didn't know when they fall in love. But, it was sick when Jace says "I don't believe it", "I don't care". I mean, they are brother and sister, how can he not care about loving his sister?

5. Movie was fast paced so people who didn't read the book like me, this movie was like "what the heck just happened". The whole idea of Shadow hunter and demon and mortal cup was confusing enough, I had to deal with Jace and Clary being brother and sister and the movie didn't confirm whether it was true or just Blackwell confusing them. I had to confirm this with my friend who read the entire book. Also, I understand that the movie should not be over 2 hours but it was so funny how Clary and Jace kissed and Clary just invites him to her room and when Simon came out from her room, Jace suddenly gets angry and jealous. This whole thing happened in one scene and I was like you guys just kissed and now you guys are fighting over someone who happens to be in her bedroom. How is this Clary's fault and why is Jace getting angry with this thing? He knew Simon likes Clary. He saw how they were close right before Clary meets him on the roof. It was so stupid and so silly and so childish and so fast! Was the book like this? or was it just in the movie?

6. Of course, there was some product placement. I can't remember it now because it has been over a week. But I remember me thinking "oh, product placement". I personally don't want to watch it again in cinema (I don't mind watching it again for free though, just because I like Jace's voice and accent) so I'm not going to tell you how many and what brands. But there was definitely more than two product placement !!

Overall, 1.5/5. It was 1.5 because I loved Jace's voice and his British accent. Also, I like Clary. She is so pretty ! but that's it. seriously, that's it. Don't waste your money.

We're the Millers

Wasn't planning to watch this but I watched it in cinema for $10.

1. Comedy. Some sexual R18 comedy but some good casual comedy that makes you chuckle. This movie is definitely not a trailer movie where comedy movies show all the funny parts on trailer to attract the moviegoers and when they watch the movie, they realise trailer has all the comedy and hence no surprises in the movie and didn't end up finding the movie funny. This movie has hide a lot of funny parts in the movie from the trailer, which was good surprise and gave the impression that this movie is funny the entire time. Definitely better than The Heat (this movie is a trailer movie. all the good funny parts except Denny's were shown in the trailer). 

2. No surprises there in terms of good acting and hence good character connection was created. Everyone portrayed their characters really well.

3. Storyline is obviously unrealistic. Four very distinctive characters coming along for different but somehow same purpose (lonely) and became like a "real" family. A definite transition of each character's personality (especially Rose and Casey) was shown in the movie and how they unconsciously became a typical family. They all have no family. Hence, for them to behave like a normal family is a transition and changes. This was shown very clearly where moviegoers can easily pick out the changes. Unrealistic in terms of how David can smuggle drug into USA borderline. It just made USA security look stupid.

4. I think you can say that this movie is a typical Jennifer Aniston movie. Obviously it's a comedy movie and another easy relax movie where it doesn't require you to think about the movie. All you need is a popcorn and a frozen coke and just laugh your way through the movie. Afterwards, you will either feel (1) not funny because the humour code isn't your type (2) like it. Me and my friends like it as we had no expectations of how good this movie is going to be. So we came out feeling good and made us to "like" this movie. This is a good $10 worth movie. But I won't personally pay $14 for this movie. I would rather wait and rent this movie DVD when it releases because I personally don't think comedy movie is worth $14 to pay and watch it in cinema.

5. So many product placement !!!! particularly YouTube and Apple. It was TOO obvious.

Overall, 3/5

The Wolverine

Finally, I've seen it. I heard good stories and bad stories about this movie and I was so tempted whether I should watch it or not. But I decided to watch it because of Hugh Jackman.

1. Obvious storyline as it is originally from comic book. However, even though the comic book was set in Japan, I can't help but feeling this movie was somehow advertising Japan. Saying Japanese, using Japanese actors/actress, main girl is Japanese and Logan somehow fall in love with her..?!, then Japanese food, Japanese traditional clothes, Japanese places..All Japanese. But, the main plot is about how one man that Logan saved from Hiroshima nuclear bomb, became obsessive with Logan's "gift" and even tries to fake his death, ruin his company, and tries to kill his life saver. But there is another plot in this movie. It's about Logan's moving on from Jean. He moves on when he meets Mariko, which I found it a bit funny and a bit "unfit" with the story. What was it about her that Logan fell in love? and made him want to live again? I didn't see how Mariko was saving him. To be honest, I felt that they were somehow forced to make the love scene in the movie so they can make more movies about the wolverine going back to being a solider. Another thing I don't understand was Mariko's best friend, Harada thinks Logan was the bad guy and tries to kill him to save Mariko..?! It was weird for me.

2. Some funny parts where Logan says American/Western comedy. But I don't think it was necessary to be there, in fact, I believe wolverine says stuff like this in any of x-man movies. So to me, I was surprise how Logan can in fact, says stuff like this and made audiences laugh/chuckle.

3. This movie definitely had product placement involved. Mercede Benz was a bit obvious. Then FedEx, Nokia etc. Wonder what people will say about Mercede Benz and Nokia especially when they watch this movie? For me, Nokia was just like "eh" with absolute no increase in purchase intention. Mercede Benz in fact made me wonder "wow nice car" but I wonder, why Mercede Benz? If the movie is in Japan, they could have perhaps used Japanese brand cars? which are quite many in the car industry that are well known internationally. Made me curious.

4. I watched it in 2D and I think it was worth it. I personally don't think this movie is 3D movie but it was shown in 3D as well and now, I wonder how 3D might look like because i think it will look like exactly the same as 2D. Nothing pops up that made me think "this movie will be great for 3D". 

That's it. It didn't really make me thing about the plot, didn't make me think about anything indeed. Just fun to watch Hugh Jackman's hard work on this body. Oh! when he twitched one of his breast muscle, that was funny. 

Overall 2.5/5

Now You See Me

When I saw this movie poster, I was like "what is this..why so long movie title?". Had no interest of watching this. Then I watched the movie trailer when I'm watching some other movie in cinema and o.m.g it blew my mind. MAGIC !! and THIEF?! i got interested and started to Imdbed it and went to cinema website to see when it releases and this week, a day after it released, I watched it.

1. The story is about magic. I personally love story like this. It is so unusual and unique topic to have in movie. So many movies are now based on robots and monsters and typical love story or comedy and somehow cruel horror films. This movie was different. It was serious and not funny (it was funny some parts but not as comedy funny. Didn't intend to have comedy genre at all). It didn't involve any robots or monsters or love story and wasn't scary at all. This movie stood out from other movies are I have watched in cinema because of the distinctive storyline. Refreshing will be the word.

2. Excellent use of actors and actress. The movie used all familiar faces, which means that all of them have experience. Good years of experience in acting and hence knows how to act. None of them were weird and made me uncomfortable like Pacific Rim. Acting helped me to connect myself with the movie and movie characters and concentrated on watching movie for entire 2 hours without thinking when this movie is going to end.

3. Well made. I don't think the cost of producing this movie is as high as other action genre movies. Hence, relatively, this movie is well made. Good and relevant use of graphics, lines that make you chuckle and whole magics that create your movie experience positive. I believe the director knows how to make good film, which was pleased to see because I enjoyed it a lot ! But I'm not sure if I'm going to watch it again in cinema. I don't know why but I just think this movie is second time cinema movie. Definitely watch it in cinema because you can't wait until it releases DVD but doesn't make you want to watch it again in cinema. I will definitely buy it in DVD when it's on like $10 (which means I have to wait after a year). It would have been maybe more interesting and exciting and make me want to watch it again if it was on 3D and some of the magic trips are shown in 3D, for example the card flying and shooting to detective or the bubble magic. It would have been amazing if it was available in 3D.

4. Lots and lots of product placement. Starting from Las Vegas' hotels, cars (BMW etc), Pepsi (so obvious !) and so on. Some cars and Pepsi were very obvious and can tell that they paid this movie production cost. I personally think Pepsi was too much to see. Why is it so necessary to have Pepsi on interrogation room? it was just silly.

5. Good twist on characters. Some were obvious like a magician dying on car explosion. For the entire time, I was thinking maybe the detective is the eye magician but I couldn't confirm my feeling but that when it did, I was like "wow". During the movie, I thought Morgan Freeman was indeed one of the magician and It was interesting to see how he was framed by the detective. I also thought the French girl might be the real magician's assistant or that whole characters were hypothesized by one of the magicians. The movie made me think like I am the one who is solving this case and it was good to see how one of my solution was indeed true. It made it "obvious" but good obvious because I thought about other scenarios too (which made is not so obvious). But I can't help but think that the movie was rushed at the end. It was slow paced in the beginning and all of a sudden, everything was fast-paced as if it was rushing to show the audiences how all of this is solved and how this was possible for 2 hours. Yes the magic shows were amazing and maybe appropriate but maybe because it was showing the magic tricks for several minutes, at the end, there was a rush of chasing the magicians, trying to explain how all of the story are linked together at the end. It was just rushed. I personally would not mind if it was a bit over 2 hours and keep up their pace so I don't feel rushed but I understand that majority of moviegoers are expecting the movie to finish in 2 hours.

Highly recommend to watch this movie in cinema !
4/5

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.