SAN ANDREAS

I watched this movie on my birthday in Taiwan. It was my first choice because I would prefer to watch a chinese movie while I was there but this was the only feasible choice then given the time.

Starring Dwayne Johnson as the lead Ray, Carla Gugino as his ex-wife Emma, Alexandra Daddario as his daughter Blake, Ioan Gruffudd as the cowardice real estate developer Daniel, the asian actor Will Yun Lee as Dr Kim Chung, Colton Haynes as the helicopter rescuer Joby, this was a highly unrealistic movie where Ray, a helicopter rescue pilot, went about with his helicopter and a boat to save his ex-wife Emma and daughter Blake from the killer earthquake which measured 9.6 on the Richter scale, the tsunami, and all the effects of the catastrophe e.g. crumbling buildings.

Kylie Minogue had a cameo role as Emma's sister Susan and she died together with an entire building of people, except for Emma who managed to make it to the rooftop of the building and was rescued by Ray on his helicopter before going all out to locate Blake, who was saved by a stranger Ben Taylor, who later became her boyfriend, and his younger brother Ollie, before the father came to the final rescue.

Well, I looked past how unrealistic the plot was, and enjoyed the movie for what it was - an action-packed movie.

the collapsing Hoover dam 

seismologist Lawrence Hayes and the reporter Serena

San Franciso destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami

Ollie, Blake and Ben (L to R) watched on with horror as the tsunami hit their building

Ray and Emma

SEVENTH SON

I was thinking I should post about this today because I would be extremely tied up for the next two weeks.

Starring Ben Barnes as the titular character the seventh son of the seventh son Thomas Ward, Jeff Bridges as Gregory the Spook, one of my favourite actresses Julianne Moore as the evil witch and dragon Mother Malkin, Alicia Vikander as Alice, Kit Harington (lead actor of last year's movie Pompeii) with a brief role as the apprentice Billy Bradley and Olivia Williams as Tom's mother Mam who is a good witch, the simple storyline was a letdown to me.

Thomas, the son of a good witch and human, was sort of destined to be an apprentice to help the supernatural master the Spook to kill a dark witch, who was once Gregory's ex-lover. What is a movie like this without a love relationship, hence the character Alice, who was the daughter of another witch and human, and Thomas fell in love with each other. Anyway, that was besides the point and I hardly think it was a pivotal part of the movie.

Interestingly, Kit Harington had a small part to play at the beginning of the movie and died shortly after being killed by the dragon. This was another recent movie of Julianne Moore's but I wasn't quite impressed with her character and role. Ben Barnes was just there to look good. I did find Mam quite an interesting character though.

Anyway, I don't think this is excellent box office material, which kind of explains why it wasn't released in December 14 with the bigger blockbusters.

Billy ensnared by the dragon's tail.

the witch in human form

Thomas and Gregory

Alice and Thomas

Mam who sacrificed herself to save the village

THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY

I don't know if it is me but I don't seemed to enjoy such comedy movies anymore. I felt de-sensitized to the jokes or humour these days. Starring Ben Stiller as the daydreaming Walter, who easily slipped into a daze or his dream world, everytime something unpleasant, challenging or exciting happened, to escape from reality.

Through the motivation of a colleague Cheryl whom he fancied, he broke out of his comfort zone in an attempt to salvage his job, and in the process found his purpose in life and won the heart of Cheryl. Sean Penn, Shirley MacLaine, Kristen Wiig and Adam Scott were the other actors and actresses.

I couldn't remember anything memorable about the movie though.

ENDER'S GAME

"Ender's Game" is just the first of a series of science fiction books by the author Orson Scott Card. Starring Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld and others, it is a story set in a future time where the gaming kids were tested, handpicked for their potential and trained by the Military to fight and defend Earth against an alien insect race which attacked Earth once before.

Ender was the brightest among a group of computer kids and through his wits, courage and strategies, led his team of precocious kids like him to exterminate the alien bugs and destroyed their planet through computer games training, but not before he realized the truth that the final test wasn't a computer simulated programme after all and that they were playing in real time and killed every single living bug on their planet. Horrified by his own deed, he felt betrayed by the Military for lying to him and responsible for the death of an entire bug species which he tried to understand and communicate with in an attempt to prevent a war. With deep remorse, he discovered that the aliens were not out to launch another attack against Earth but were making preparations to defend themselves against the impending attack by the humans.

Anyway, with his connection with the Queen bug, he also found out that the remaining Queen on Earth was trying to communicate with him through his dreams before the final attack. His conscious bugged him, pun unintended, and he went on to find a remaining bug egg, that was to be the future Queen, on Earth and eventually set off to search for a planet that would allow the egg to hatch to continue the bug species lineage.

It was an entertaining movie and was actually quite strange to find the young pre-teenage skinny and scrawny Asa took control and commanded a team of cadets and soldiers to do his bidding in the battle against the bugs. Anyway, the acting by the entire cast was quite credible and I look forward to more future installments of the series. 

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN

Today's weather - sunny

After much anticipation, I watched this new Marvel Comics superhero movie starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Martin Sheen, Sally Field and so on. I enjoyed the earlier spider-man movies that were first made a decade ago in 2002 with Tobey Maguire as the lead and had my reservations with this new version with a new lead whom I have never come across before.


In comparison, Andrew seemed like an unlikely hero with his scrawny body. But I guess one shouldn't be too judgmental and stereotype anything or anyone. This movie proved to me that I still have lots to learn everyday. I admit that Andrew Garfield is brilliant in this role and I can't think of anyone more suitable to play this well-known character.


This new take explored a deeper side into Peter Parker's life and personality and showed how this angsty and cynical youngster overcame his personal demons, insecurities and inadequacies to eventually become a vigilante who protected the innocent lives out there. The awakening journey he took wasn't an easy one with the loss of both his parents when he was just a child and the loss of his uncle Ben, which he was partially responsible for. I love the transformation he went through from a geeky boy-next-door who was constantly bullied at school to a geeky boy-turned-superhero who tested his new-found powers to a new superhero who learnt to take on this calling and responsibility to protect the innocent.


Oh, and did I mention I love the new spider logo with the long legs? Well, I certainly do. And Emma Stone as Peter's new girlfriend Gwen Stacy was definitely much more appealing than Kirsten Dunst's character Mary-Jane Watson.

HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU

I missed this 2009 movie on love when it was screened at the cinemas but finally managed to catch it when it was recently shown on television. Frankly, I love watching movies with a huge ensemble cast of well-known actors and actresses, so I was looking forward to watching it especially when some were my favourites.


I don't even know where to begin listing down the actors and actresses, so I will do so alphabetically:

• Ben Affleck
• Bradley Cooper
• Drew Barrymore
• Jennifer Aniston
• Jennifer Connelly
• Kevin Connolly
• Scarlett Johansson

In fact, the only unknown to me is Ginnifer Goodwin, who played the central character looking for love. The movie explored the love relationships between Jennifer A. and Ben, Scarlett, Kevin and Drew, Jennifer C. and Bradley, Justin and Ginnifer. In the end, there were both success and failed stories to be told e.g. a long term relationship seemingly going nowhere ended up in marriage whilst a supposedly happy marriage ended up in divorce. Nothing was really what it seemed as each and every individual had their own takes on and expectations in love, relationships etc, and eventually experienced different outcomes. Some were finally blissfully happy while others were sad and lonely. It goes to show that every relationship is different and one cannot apply a single formula to make them work for everyone.


I felt this movie had a lot of potential to be fantastic but turned out to be a disappointment because there were too many characters involved and there was just insufficient time to explore all of them in detail. What a waste!