How to train your dragon

Screw "Clash of the titans"! The Kraken took 20 minutes to rise from the sea and took less than minute for Perseus to finish it off. Hades lasted even shorter. If you want a good Greek mythology with action, you'll be better off playing "God of War 3" on PS3. But if you want to enjoy a good movie this summer, go watch "How to train your dragon". This is just one of the animations that made you wonder if actors would be obsolete in the near future.




(the starting soundtrack - 'this is berk')

From the beginning, the music would have captivated you, a hallmark of a very good movie. The movie soundtrack is AWESOME, and I would highly recommend buying it.

The storytelling was also excellent and the script was very well written. There was no moment of lapse.

The animation was very detailed and unlike some of the animations, the fast-moving scenes are well rendered. The emotions of the character were well animated and these was very well complemented by the excellent voice acting.

The casts include voices by Christopher Mintz-Plasse (who also acted as Red Mist in Kick Ass, another highly recommended movie by me!), America Ferrera (Ugly Betty), Gerald Butler (300, Law Abiding Citizen, Gamer, Bounty Hunter) and my favourite Craig Ferguson (from the Late Late Show). But perhaps, the best voice acting goes to the main character in the movie, Jay Baruchel as Hiccup.

Lines like, "You are not my son!" and "I'm proud of you my son!" may sounds too cliche in animations. But with a good build-up of story, good voice acting coupled with good animation, the lines popped up at exactly where they are suppose to be, triggering the emotions of the audience.

Despite the typical brain vs brawn theme (i.e. brain saves the world and gets the girl), this movie turned out to be a lot of fun. It is definitely worth a watch. It is indeed very rare that animations are able to capture human emotions as well as "How to train your dragon". The other animated motion picture that came close was, to my opinion, "Finding Nemo".

At the rate computer graphics and animations are improving, I can see that somewhere in our future, our grandchildren would be saying, "Haha, my grandpa used to watch movies acted by real person! What a joke!?"

The legend of the falls

I have watched a lot of movies. Recently, I watched this classic again. It is one of those movies which I have watched countless times and still find it touching and captivating. I highly recommend it.

This movie easily ranks as one of the top, together with Shawshank Redemption. It is called "The legend of the falls".

A good movie is where the director makes every scene counts and every word spoken counts. This movie is a good movie.

I love good developed stories and character. Brotherhood, heroism, family, love and action. It has all of them. In a way, this movie reflects what would truly touch me as a person. This movie is a very 'guy' movie (there are too many 'girl' movies out there now anyway, e.g. high school musical, etc, always emphasizing the love in a 'girl' way). But it shouldn't put off the girls, as high school musical did not put off the guys. In fact, it is love as it is - in a very real way, and seeing it from a guy's point of view.

I love good developed character. To fall in love with a movie's character is not easy. The movie builds up the relationship of the three brothers with their father, and how happy their family is at an isolated ranch. Until it was tore apart by war, betrayal and love. But it was because the setting up of the heart-warming family during the early part of the movie, that made breaking up of the family in the later part of the movie seems so touching and real.

The father of the family loves his three sons very much. Yet, he's fierce and show little emotion at the same time. How the brothers and and father spoke so little, and yet show so much affection and respect for each other, especially towards the end of the movie, is exactly how love is shown in a guy way (If it were left to the director of high school musical, they would be hugging and jumping around).

Despite attaching so much male chauvinism to this movie, I would like to emphasize that this movie is not reserved for guys only. There's an excellent story-line and Brad Pitt. The movie is also a bit lengthy. But have a little patience, I'm confident it is well worth your time to watch this movie.

The day earth stood still...

I like the theme of the movie. Here are some of the quotes from the movie...

***************************************
Human: Why have you come to our planet?
Klaatu: Your planet?
Human: Yes, this is our planet.
Klaatu: No, it's not.

Human: But, you said you came to save us!
Klaatu: No, I said I came to save the Earth.
Human: OMG, you came to save the Earth from us?

"People change on the brink of extinction"
***************************************

But the ending was abrupt and disappointing. All it takes to convince Klaatu (Keanu) to change his mind is Jacob (Jaden Smith) crying in front of his father's grave?

I thought Klaatu said that the problem is us? That we, humans, cared for nothing but only for our own species. And that even among our own species, we fought. And that we must show that we're capable of change before the aliens would decide against destroying us. So when Jacob cried and when Helen (Connelly) held him in her arms didn't they do it for ...erm...our own species? Where did they show that they cared for Earth or other species?

Face it humans, we're selfish!

Max Payne with no 'bullet time'

I just watched the movie, starring Mark Wahlberg.

And there wasn't any 'bullet time'.

Ok, all the 80's babies who played Max Payne knew why we played Max Payne. It's because of 'bullet time'.

Max Payne without 'bullet time' is Max Pain. C'mon, why make a movie called Max Payne when you do not have the cool 'slow-the-time-and-shoot-all-the-bad-guys feature'? Without 'bullet time' it's like any other cop-criminal movie where the detective just happen to be called Max Payne'

Disappointing.