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.