Step Up 2 The Streets: Review

This is actually the second dance movie that I've watched. the first was Step Up and I was bored to death. There was practically no character development and the story went no where. it just launches into one dance sequence after another but what to do..it's a dance movie mah. It's only saving grace was Jenna Dewan..she so fine....

 

Now as much as I tried to hate this movie, coz these types of flicks aren't exactly my kind of thing but I have to say, they did a pretty good job on this. Sure it was just like every other dance movie. The acting sucked, the script was boring and the plot went no where. But what made Steep up 2 special was just the freakin sick dance choreography. Movies like this weren't made to have good story lines or character development. It clearly relied on the dancing front and my God, i was completely blown away! Unconvinced? Watch this:

That aside, I felt that the producers could have developed the supporting characters more, especially the crew members who joined the main characters during the middle of the show. The story actually provided a lot of dysfunctional yet loveabale side characters which takes us away from our usual perception of dancers.

 

I mean think about it. If I asked you to describe the physical appearance of a dancer, you'd probably come up with the usual good looking, well toned body with a hip hop/cool personality kind of character. Now theres nothing wrong about that, but the media keeps associating the good lookers to talent that we begin to stereotype those who aren't good looking as people with no talent. Just look at all the talent shows like American Idol or dance movies like the first Step Up or Honey.

 

The people in it are all primed and flawless with nice bodies and that kind of Lucas Scott personality, and that is the illusion the media has created. Step Up 2 reminds us that talent is more than skin deep by adding in a supporting cast from the bottom rungs of the social ladder. There were geeks, hippies and Asians..but damn they got moves and not a "HOLLY SHIT THIS IS SO COOL" moment goes by when they dance and they totally outshone the leads.

 

I particularly liked this guy named Adam G. Sevani who played this super geek, Moose sickeningly well. And my God, yes! He dance very chun..And this was what I really liked about Step Up 2, because it also had a lesson beneath all the dance repertoires.

Fine I admit it, I liked this movie. It was different than the usual movies I watch but I enjoyed it immensely. I guarantee after watching this, you will be having a hard time trying to stop your foot from popping.

RATING: 5/10

10,000BC: Review

I really tried to like this movie. I really, really did. 10,000BC was no doubt a very good popcorn movie, but it failed on so many levels.

This movie came off as a very strong rip-off of Mel Gibson's Apocalypto. Even the story line is the same. Half naked guy with bulging muscles is the protector of his village and lover of the most beautiful babe in the tribe. Sadly..half naked guy with bulging muscles loses everything after another tribe on horses (which shouldn't exist in 10,000BC) came along, sacked the village and kidnapped his babe. Heartbroken, half naked guy with bulging muscles goes on a quest to reclaim his beau by WALKING through different climate zones, whilst fighting off sabretooth tigers and giant man-eating Dodos.

For what it's worth, 10,000BC boasts the most breathtaking cinematography and CGI I have ever seen since Lord Of The Rings. The acting was good and the actors are just so fine. Especially Camilla Belle (yes people..I'm still straight). The score and sound effects are incredibly terrifying and it just adds to the tension and suspense the action scenes creates. So an A+ to the producers for that.

It's story line flowed pretty well though some huge chunks of it were dispensable. For example, there was this whole plot line about half naked guy's babe being the bringer of life and shares a spiritual connection with an oracle back at their ravaged village.

And Camilla Belle looks hot in this! Clearly they only added this in because they needed a girl for the guys to gawk at or else for the entire 3 hours they would just be watching half naked guys running everywhere. (*hint hint* rip off from 300). Other than that, the plot left a lot of pot holes which weren't filled up and the ending was one of the most Hong Kong drama type of movie endings ever.

Clearly the director didn't do his homework in tying things together and this made the movie run on longer than it should have been. This movie was sort of a let down, prior to the hype it created but for what it's worth, I think 10,000BC is a fun way of passing the time.

RATING: 4/10

And The Oscars Goes To.... Violence!

Yeah I know this post is like super late. I've been busy for the past weeks, so I'll just pretend the Oscars happened last night. Seems the Academy is a bit choi this year. Last week the Oscars went to all the movies that has blood spurting all over the place. It wasn't different compared to the past shows. It was still boring, it was still predictable and Johnny Depp still didn't win!

The show was hosted by "funny man" Jon Stewart and all I can say is "Please bring back Ellen DeGeneres!" I mean no offense to Jon but seriously the guy isn't funny. His monologue at the start of the show was all about politics and none of them were funny at all. The whole day it was just Hillary and Obama, bla bla bla bla... Thank god the writer's strike ended. God knows what would have happened if it was only him writing the script.

This year was kinda special because I think this is the first time all the acting awards went to non-Americans. Javier Bardem won Best Supporting Actor for his role in No Country For Old Men. Daniel Day Lewis won Best Actor for There Will Be Blood. Tilda Swinton(the witch lady from Narnia) won Best Supporting Actress. And the super hot Marion Cotillard won Best Actress.

 Top honors went to the Coen brothers for they're movie, No Country For Old Men and like I said before, if your movie has no blood and rotting carcasses everywhere, you don't stand a chance. Other awards went to There Will Be Blood and Sweeney Todd.

Another highlight of the show was when they presented an In Memoriam video montage of all the actors/actresses and movie contributes who have passed away. Of course the best part of the montage was when they did a tribute to Heath Ledger who died on January 28th but surprisingly there were not much claps for him..wonder why? Another good part was when Amy Adams sang one of the songs from Enchanted on the stage. She may have looked good on the film but seriously watching her act like Giselle on stage was a bit geli...and another awkward part was when she shouted in super hig

h pitch "Wasn't this fun?" and then the music ended and there was no applause....sad.

I got the full list of winners here so enjoy...

BEST PICTURE   

No Country for Old Men

 

BEST DIRECTOR
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men

BEST ACTRESS
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose

BEST ACTOR
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Diablo Cody, Juno

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men

BEST FOREIGN FILM
The Counterfeiters (Austria)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Ratatouille

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION
Sweeney Todd

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
There Will Be Blood

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN
Elizabeth: The Golden Age

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Taxi to the Dark Side

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
Freeheld

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING
The Bourne Ultimatum

ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP
La Vie en Rose

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Atonement

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
"Falling Slowly" from Once

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Peter and the Wolf

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
Le Mozart des Pickpockets

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING
The Bourne Ultimatum

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING
The Bourne Ultimatum

ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS
The Golden Compass

Grammy Awards 2008

Okay, I have a confession to make. This was the first time I watched The Grammy's. And all I have to say is: Wah! I was so not expecting all those types of performances. You know I always thought The Grammy's were like the MTV Awards kind of crap. All those over classed "singers" in their terrible sense of fashion receiving the dumbest awards I've ever heard of.

But naw, The Grammys were a breathe of fresh air showcasing truly talented artists devoted to making good music. Some of the artists that performed for the Grammy's 5oth Anniversary were The Foo Fighters, Amy Winehouse(via satellite), Alicia Keys, Kanye West, Beyonce, Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin and Carrie Underwood. All mix and mashed together into a 3 hour award show of pure musical brilliance.

Troubled drug addict Amy Winehouse dominated the awards show even though she was locked up in a rehab center half-way around the world, sweeping the top awards like Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year and Best New Artist. But the real shocker is the big win by Herbie Hancock (yeah funny name, I know) winning the top prize of Album Of The Year. But overall, Amy lead with 5 Grammy wins followed by Kanye West by 4 wins.

My most favorite performance of the night!

She so fine.....I so have a crush on Alicia Keys!

His Body Is A Wonderland

You know.. I always saw John Mayer as a very talented musician. I mean, if you've listened to some of his songs, you'd probably know what I mean. To me, he is the only celebrity in Hollywood who is perfectly grounded and sane. But........

On Tuesday, John was spotted on the "Mayercraft" cruise liner which headed out to the Bahamas for a tour. John was photographed wearing a replica thong swimsuit which was previously worn by Sacha Baron Cohen in his film, Borat.

Will I get suspended for putting these pics up?

Meet The Spartans: Review

Now, I don't curse, but man, f*ck this movie! I mean, there are people dying of hunger in Darfur and these guys are incinerating millions of dollars to make crap like this? You guys know me right, I watch bad movies and say they're just movies. But Meet The Spartans pissed me off so much, I walked out 60 minutes in and asked the GSC guy for a refund. That's how bad this movie was!
The guys responsible for this are Jason Freidberg and Aaron Seltzer, the one's who gave us Date Movie and Epic Movie, which are the worst movies I have ever seen. If these are the writers who are staging the strike in Hollywood, then just fire them for god sakes. These people don't even try to make it entertaining. This was just a series of scenes taken from 300 and then these two geniuses said, "Hey, lets make the characters gay!"

So throughout the entire movie, they are just throwing one gay joke after another. I mean, who didn't watch 300 and make a bunch of gay jokes right? And I guarantee you, 90% of those jokes are funnier than the ones in the movie. It was slightly amusing at first, but then, they just kept repeating it again and again and again, you begin to say, "Okay we get it! They're gay. Now move on to another joke you idiots!"

 

And wait, the Malaysian censorship board did not approve any one of the 5 Best Picture nominees for the Oscars, but they agreed to screen Meet The Spartans? This movie wasn't insightful, it wasn't ironic, it wasn't even funny. It was just one American pop culture reference after another. They're still making fun of Britney, still making fun of Paris Hilton and they have no clever way of parodying these things. Example, the fat guy from Borat turns into a Transformer. Why? Well for no reason other than the fact that they had to find a way to mention the Transformers.

 

This film is bullshit, bullshit, bullshit! And what's more disturbing is that I actually paid these mother f*ckers RM8 to watch their god damn movie. By far, Meet The Spartans is the worst film I have ever seen in my life.


RATING: What's below zero?

Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: Review

People, this is a major must-see film! It's first and foremost a musical, with essentially all the characters singing throughout, but it's also horrific and hilarious. If cheerful musicals aren't your thing, never fear – this is Sweeney Todd – a very darkly comic and tragic tale.

Sweeney Todd is a faithful but unique adaptation of the award-winning and much beloved stage musical by Stephen Sondheim, with few cuts and changes. Contrary to some musicals where the songs aren't necessary to the basic plot, the songs tell the tale in this one. Sweeney Todd is a throat-slashing barber (which is actually a true story!) obsessed with revenge after a man of power took everything from him. He returns to London and cooks up a very disturbing plot for revenge with his diabolical accomplice Mrs. Lovett.

Tim Burton is at his best, artfully meshing the powerful and beautiful music with stunning visuals. In this movie, he joins Johnny Depp, his partner in film and partner in real life, Helena Bonham Carter to successfully create a much more intimate atmosphere than can be achieved on stage. Although none of the actors are professional singers, each character is portrayed very effectively with the acting and singing combined.

The cinematography, set designs, costumes, and makeup portray the Gothic side of London. The horrific moments where Sweeney kills his victims are graphically brutal and gory, and yet hilarious for no apparent reason.

Burton does not skimp on the blood, and it even becomes intentionally over-the-top. But it does not seem gratuitous in that it is the reality of the story, and it also has a metaphorical role. The violence is disturbing, but you can cover your eyes if you're squeamish (it's only a few scenes).

Personally, I found the film as a fresh contrast to the usual chirpy, cabaret Broadway adaptations like Hairspray. And can Johnny Depp sing? OH GOD YES! Not only does he sing the songs well, he stayed 100% in character throughout.

He plays Sweeney with such a subdued feeling and yet come out as an intense character. Carter's voice is a bit thin, but she creates a very adorable and lovable Mrs. Lovett. She is a wonderfully colorful and humorous contrast to the dark and gloomy Sweeney. The show also introduces the voices of Alan Rickman (Severus Snape from Harry Potter) and Timothy Spall (Peter Pattigrew in Harry Potter).

What I think the musical was trying to say was, "What would you do when someone who took everything from you was now at your mercy?" Sweeney was overwhelmed by vengeance for 15 years, he forgot what was most important to him, his wife and child. In the end, he got his revenge, but he lost so much more. All this leads up to a bloody and tragic finale which I will not spoil.

If you are a musical hater, Sweeney Todd may be too much to take in as 75% of the dialog is sung. But if your in for some Burton-Depp magic, the film will leave you in utter stunned-silence, I guarantee you that.

RATING: 7/10