Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

Oh Mr. James Cameron, where art thou? Your disappearance from the movie-dom seems like an eternity since you sink the big ship years ago. To make a comeback following up your most successful movie seems like a mountain to climb. I am aware all these years you are waiting for the technology to be "matured" enough; waiting for the movie studio to grow some guts to allow you to flex your muscles.

And here we are, the long awaited, 12 years in the making sci-fi epic. A movie that fully utilize the most groundbreaking technology so far, an entire new world was created using photo realistic CGI, blending actors with motion capture animation technology. One of the most expensive movies ever made to date, and certainly the most ambitious one even by James Cameron's standard.

Avatar is best described as Dances With Wolves (Costner, 1990) meet Pocahontas (Gabriel & Goldberg, 1995) in another world. It is year 2154, a large non-government corporation (akin to Aliens' Weyland-Yutani Corp.) are colonizing a moon called Pandora light years away from Earth. They wish to drive away the native inhabitants Na'vi, a blue skin, 10 feet humanoid away so that they can mine the invaluable mineral found on that moon, before they use Plan A (read: full scale war), they create an avatar to assimilate into their tribe, to study them; to educate them. This avatar is a hybrid DNA of human and Na'vi, to enable human participant to remotely control their avatar to explore the harsh and unknown territory of Pandora. The way of how all these Avatars work, just think of how Neo and co. plug into the simulated reality of The Matrix except here in Pandora, everything is real..... Well, you get the idea.

Jake Sulley (by Sam Worthington), a former Marine paralysed below the waist, came in to the Avatar Project replacing his twin deceased brother. Jake (his avatar with his consciousness) met a female Na'vi, a tribe's princess, Neytiri (by Zoe Saldaña with the help of motion-capture technique). Both of them did à la John Smith-Pocahontas by the time the Corporation execute Plan A, prompting Jake to make a tough decision on which side he is taking.

Avatar suffered from a rare James Cameron's missing trademark: Lack of a strong character(s) that I normally root for. For a movie clocked in at 2 hours 40 minutes, it is a cardinal sins committed by J.C. not to offer us any real depth in all major characters, not even Sigourney Weaver (who played Dr. Augustine as a leader of the Avatar Project and a mentor to Jake) is at her usual best. Do not even mention the one dimensional, stereotype chief villain. Only Zoe Saldaña’s Neytiri deserved some praises. Maybe I am too busy enjoying all the gorgeous visual stuffs.

The experience of watching this movie is similar to dating a beautiful face-surgical constructed, breast enhanced woman except she is an empty vessel once you are close to her. It is far from Cameron's best (Terminator 2 takes the crown, follow by Aliens (1986)), yet it has firmly become the beacon of future movie making because it raises the benchmark of 3D CGI in a movie format.

Avatar is a special effect-driven movie, truly a case of style over substance. Although almost 20 years on since I first watch his T2: Judgement Day (1991), I am still in awe at that superb crafted movie even after the umpteenth times of viewing. J.C. is always so great at crafting a solid story that enhances the visual effect even more, but he missed it this time with his own superficial script and the afore-mentioned lack of strong characters. Just like most eye candy movie, it is full marks for the looks but underneath is an aura-less chassis.


1 star = Pathetic, SowYau feel ashamed of watching it
2 stars = Off the mark material, approach with caution
3 stars = Generally good, you should watch it if it's your favourite genre
4 stars = excellent, strongly recommended
5 stars = A classic status? only time will tell. But it is definitely in SowYau's Hall of Fame List

Orphan (Jaume Collet-Serra, 2009)

The theme of devilish behaviour under the disguise of innocent face children have been brilliantly executed in the past. This latest thriller is produced by Dark Castle Entertainment, which specialize in making horror movies such as House of Haunted Hill (Malone, 1999) and The Reaping (Hopkins, 2007). It focus on a young married couple, Kate (Vera Farmiga) and John Coleman (Stellan Sarsgaard). They are rebuilding their frail relationship after a series of setbacks. Such as very early on we find out Kate suffered from delivered stillborn baby recently and still haunted by it. Despite they have had two children, they decided to adopt another to ease the pain of losing their 3rd child.

Enter the matured looking 9 years old orphan, Esther, who is more than meet the eyes. From the movie trailer and poster we just know something is not quite right about Esther the orphan. But nothing prepares us for her wickedness, as she turn from a nice little girl to manipulative psychopath with a terrifying secret. That secret turns out to be a chilling sucker punch to say the least. I will not disclose the twist of course, you will be guessing about Esther’s origin, be it supernaturally or “realistically”. I would say the twist surrounding Esther's origin is plausible, at maybe 1 out of 50 million chances, yeah right!

It is absolutely essential for evil child character to be portrayed remarkably; else the movie loses its appeal. This is where Orphan shines the most. There is not one shred of doubt that the brightest star in Orphan is in the shape of 12 years old actress Isabelle Fuhrman. Her debut performance is convincing, matured and most of all, more terrifying than Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers roll into one.

This scary-fest add nothing groundbreaking to the horror/thriller genre (nowadays who does?). Despite some cliché-ridden bit and a little too cardboard-ish husband and wife characters for my liking, I managed to soak up the scary atmosphere at some vital moments. Orphan the movie certainly hits my primal fear, the thought of bringing home some evil adopted child.

1 star = Pathetic, SowYau feel ashamed of watching it
2 stars = Off the mark material, approach with caution
3 stars = Generally good, you should watch it if it's your favourite genre
4 stars = excellent, strongly recommended
5 stars = A classic status? only time will tell. But it is definitely in SowYau's Hall of Fame List

Little Miss Sunshine (J.Dayton & V.Faris, 2006)

I always have a soft spot for low budget, indie movies, I felt they certainly deserved unbiased viewing rather than most of the Hollywood half-baked products. The feel-good Little Miss Sunshine is such example, it is widely labelled as a road movie with dark comedy elements. it is ironic to note that only in the world of escapism, the harshness of life in the face of depression, suicide, financial difficulty can be depicted as comical matters.

This movie involves a dysfunctional family that travels interstates trying to take Olive to participate in a beauty pageant. The route seems easy on the map, as formulaic as it is, the journey turned out parallel to life which is full of hurdles. Dysfunction how? How about during family dinner, a discussion with little girl Olive on why her uncle decides to “check out early” i.e. suicide? Or the granddad advised his grandson to bed as many chicks as he can? Or dad allows his son not to speak to other beings until he achieves his goal? The essence of the script is witty, funny and every so often, original. Great performance from the ensemble talented casts as follows.
- Olive (Abigail Breslin), the centre of afore-mentioned Hoover family, she is an average looking, lack of self-confidence but absolute adorable little girl who dreams of partake in a beauty pageant, her wish is granted when she is qualify for the Little Miss Sunshine Children Beauty Pageant.

- Alan Arby is a heroin snorting, crudely hilarious as the foul-mouthed cynical grandfather of Olive. He has been behind closed door teaching and guiding Olive to perform at the beauty pageant (More on that performance later). Alan gets to deliver most of the awesome lines.

- Greg Kinnear is Olive’s dad, Richard, a glass-half-full-of-water kinda guy whose career as a motivation speaker does not seems to bode well as his audience are half empty (or half full; *wink*). He is desperately trying to launch his 9 Steps to Success Program but to no avail. He will rams his "9 Steps to Success" down other people's throat whenever the occasion fit.
- Olive’s mother, Sheryl (Toni Collette), a seemingly distress housewife trying to hold up the family.
- Paul Dano played Olive’s Brother, Dwayne, who is a Nietzsche’s follower. He is so persistent to become a test pilot in the military that he made a silence vow until he reach his ambition.
- Olive's gay uncle, Frank (a poker-faced Steve Carell) just released from hospital after a fail attempted suicide. He is a Proust scholar whose fellow gay lover dump him and then being kicked out from his job.

As the cash-strapped family rules out travel by air, The whole family embarks on the road with a Volkswagen T2 Microbus. This over the hill yellow VW-Van is in all sort of problems, its gearbox will only engage in gear 3 onwards, its honk cannot stop honking and one of its sidedoor fell out. Just like other road movies, Along the way to the destination, the family members face some sorts of quirky problems and this is their own journey toward self-revelation.
When the movie comes to the children beauty contest segment, it is like a freak sideshow with midget, Children with thick make up with revealing swimsuit gave me huge creep. The self-doubt Olive is the only one appear normal there. As for frantic finale, without reveal how it end, actually I have a huge morality issue to it. I mean what Olive performs at the beauty pageant contest is outrageous, and yet their parents condone it. I would think when she grow up thinking back what she has done during the beauty pageant contest, she will be horrified by it, blaming their parents for condoning her act. The reason for her mother to allow Olive perform on the stage, is let Olive be herself, but then there are many ways for her to express herself, to become the real of her, not to mention she is still a child. I can understand the theme of family togetherness; I can understand what the moviemaker tries to convey the message that no matter what happen, family is thicker than blood, they are going to stick together despite what have happen. But this is too much. I guess the Hoover family is not called as a quirky, dysfunctional family for nothing.
This movie is definitely not suitable for children although the little girl is the central character. Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette shine as husband and wife provides some heart into their performance that pull the string in the family. But the one that catches my attention is Olive's granddad who absolutely bosses this movie. If you like road movie such as Little Miss Sunshine, I would recommend the obscure indie movie called Transamerica, about a man (acted by Felicity Huffman) going to perform male-to-female sex reassignment surgery.
* On the sidenote, this movie introduced me to folk rock singer cum songwriter Sufjan Stevens and the indie rock group from Denver, DeVotchKa, whose wonderful soundtracks fit into the movie seamlessly.

1 star = Pathetic, SowYau feel ashamed of watching it
2 stars = Off the mark material, approach with caution
3 stars = Generally good, you should watch it if it's your favourite genre
4 stars = excellent, strongly recommended
5 stars = A classic status? only time will tell. But it is definitely in SowYau's Hall of Fame List

District 9 (Neill Blomkamp, 2009)

This sci-fi actioner blends the style of 1st 15 minutes of Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (Myrick, Sanchez; 2000) with the almost parallel social concept of Alien Nation (Graham Baker, 1988) wrapping with non-tinseltown flavour. If you are tired of the usual cliché alien invading/visiting Earth kind of flick, welcome to formulaic-free District 9.


The movie unfolds in an expertly quick cut of various news clips and TV interviews. Showing us how 20 years ago, a gigantic spacecraft from other world arrived and hovering in the sky, above the horizon of Johannesburg, South Africa. For a few months, nothing happen, the spaceship stayed static, the governments were speculating, the unknown sighting in the sky heightened the fear among the local people. Eventually the military forced a way into the spaceship. Rather than open a Pandora’s Box, they found the alien beings inside are in dire, malnutrition condition and without a leader.


The stranded aliens are then brought to the ground, instead of assimilate into man’s territory, the Prawns, named after their appearance, are forced to segregate in a place called District 9, an area resembles a refugee camp fills with a population of 1.8 millions aliens. Soon the place deteriorated into a ghetto. The co-existance did not last on account of some minor violence incidents involved Prawn and man. As a result of residents’ pressure, a government funded organization MNU (Multi National United) is in charge of the force eviction of the Prawn to a designated place away from the city. Wikus Van De Merwe (a nerdy newcomer Sharlto Copley) leads the MNU enforcement team to carry out the alien relocation task. Unknowing to others, MNU’s hidden agenda is to retrieve the biologically controlled weapons possessed by the aliens.


The movie’s tone take a switch to pay homage to The Fly (Cronenberg, 1986) when Wikus is unexpectedly sprayed with some alien liquid substance stored in a canister. What happen next is, he begins to fall ill and undergo some strange bodily transformation due to the amalgamation of human and prawn’s DNA. The liquid in the canister is actually a fuel substance that belongs to a Prawn named Christopher. In the final act, the movie morph into a full blown shoot-them-up actionfest when both Chris and Wikus reluctantly team up to accomplish their own different agendas against their common foe.


First time director cum co-writer, Neill Bromkamp expand his short story “Alive In Joburg” to the feature length of District 9. With a shoes-string budget, it manages to look like a testosterone-boosted sci-fi blockbuster. The great designs of the creatures/weapons couples with slick CGI special effect are neatly done by Peter Jackson’s WETA. Be warned to expect grotesque body parts splattered everywhere, and console gamers will find themselves homecoming with the mecha scenes. The aliens in District 9 are presented as ignorant, filthy and barbaric save for one Christopher. The portrayal of man’s evilness towards the aliens is almost unheard from the typical alien related movies. Evidently, This serves as metaphor of now defunct Apartheid system in South Africa.


This movie is touted as one of the rare sci-fi flick with inventiveness, but I have to think that it suffered with anthropomorphism syndrome like other movies depicting aliens. You know the drill, aliens with all kind of / numbers of head, limbs, hands, legs, eyes,……; same senses as we do. The similar social behavior as man and animal do, the same working class social hierarchy and so on. Unlike say, Contact (Zemeckis, 1997) or 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968) or the dreadful adaptation of Michael Crichton’s Sphere (Levinson, 1998) these movies are the prime examples of NOT divulging how do extra-terrestrials look like.

1 star = Pathetic, SowYau feel ashamed of watching it
2 stars = Off the mark material, approach with caution
3 stars = Generally good, you should watch it if it's your favourite genre
4 stars = excellent, strongly recommended
5 stars = A classic status? only time will tell. But it is definitely in SowYau's Hall of Fame List

The Proposal (Anne Fletcher, 2009)

“Margaret, will you marry me? Because I'd like to date you,” asked Andrew.


Does the above line make any sense to you? Actually it does in this movie. Never mind the reversal act. Marriage will keep the odd couple together, the dating CAN comes later.


The plot premise has been done to death:

1) Two mismatched persons loathe each other at first;
2) They get to know more about each other;
3) They begin to discover mutual genuine feelings;
4) Lastly, they fall in love.


Ignore the cliché-ridden plot, romantic comedy like The Proposal need chemistry from the lead characters which Sandra Bullock and younger counterpart Ryan Reynolds duly deliver. Add those ingredients with some belly laughing moments such as the pair’s ad hoc storytelling on how he proposed to her, or how Andrew’s “morning glory” disgusted Margaret.


The movie follows Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) as an obnoxious, bitchy chief editor in a book publishing firm. She is fittingly a typical boss from hell. All the workers including her personal assistant, Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) detest her; finds himself tough to cope with the demand of his ungrateful lady boss. Little known by others, Margaret is a Canadian without US citizenship, one day her boss informs that her visa application was rejected and has to be deported. In a nick of time, she pretends she is engaged to Andrew to avoid being fired from the job and deportation. They will stay married for a year or two and then divorce. Andrew unwillingly accepts the proposal with conditions that he will be promoted and his manuscript will be published.


Things, however, are not as easy as it turn out to be, because some agent from the government immigration department subjects the couple to a series of interviews to ensure there is no phony marriage. On top of that, the agent is tend to visit to their parents’ place. Hence, during the weekend, the newly engaged couple’s 1st stop is Sitka, Alaska, where Andrew announced their engagement in front of their parents and relatives during his grandma’s 90th birthday. Andrew’s family is like Kennedy’s in Sitka as Margaret aptly claimed. From there, watch the sparks fly (not all are love sparks, mind you) as they slowly grow feelings. All she need is someone like Andrew to enkindle and melt her heart; all she need is a gentle reminder to realize what she has been lacking all the while. Will the two of them end up fall for each other? Should you ask the question?


Sandra Bullock must have known she is probably at awkward phase now; she is no longer as the image of the young sweetheart in movies, nor her recent flicks was exactly hits. The Proposal is a personal welcome triumph for her. Ryan Reynolds deserves the plaudit as the likeable rom-com guy. Betty White stole the show as Andrew’s grandma in every scene she is in. Also, it is good to see Mary Steenbergen as Andrew’s mother. Gosh, she looks the same as in Back To The Future III 20 years ago. Botox’s wonder anyone?


As I said, The Proposal is predictable and based on a recycled plot, but its strength lies on the charming lead characters with clever dialogues. It’s warmth, funny, sweet but not over saccharine. Unlike other usual pairing of love interest (I mean you, Sean Connery), it is refreshing to see the pairing of older female lead with male counterpart. Sandra and Ryan definitely have natural charisma to grace the screen.




1 star = Pathetic, SowYau feel ashamed of watching it
2 stars = Off the mark material, approach with caution
3 stars = Generally good, you should watch it if it's your favourite genre
4 stars = excellent, strongly recommended
5 stars = A classic status? only time will tell. But it is definitely in SowYau's Hall of Fame List

Taken (Pierre Morel, 2008)

"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you."

These are the stern words uttered by Liam Neeson’s character to his daughter’s kidnapper over the phone. 15 years ago, this movie would be dubbed as “Die Hard in Paris”, but I guess now it is hip to say Taken is like the “male menopause Jason Bourne came out of retirement kicking ass”. Taken is a French movie produced and co-written by Luc Besson (together with his long time collaborator, Robert Mark Kamen). Chances are, if you stumbled upon a French actioner for the past 25 years, most likely it come from the direction / script / production of the big man himself.

This movie merely opened in US after most of the major oversea markets already did. It’s ironic to know the US distributor 20th Century Fox previously aim for a straight-to-DVD release, most likely due to bootleg version is ready to be downloaded from the internet some time ago. However, you just can’t put a good action thriller down, as it had surprised everyone by grossing more than 140 mil in the US box office alone (over 200 mil worldwide).


Taken is about an ex-CIA agent (Liam Neeson) go to Paris to search for his teenage daughter, and how he hunt down the kidnappers and those involved in part of the human trafficking and sex trade. Can you imagine Liam Neeson as credible action hero prior to this movie? Neither do I. but, what a surprise, He absolutely nailed the character! The beginning of the movie shows his doting side, as a father reluctantly allows her daughter to travel to Paris with her friend. As the movie progress, we found out he is almost unstoppable when he is on search and destroy mode, he is a protective father, and a no-nonsense, intense bad ass who will not give up finding his daughter. Imagine if Steven Seagal replaces Liam, you will still have the same slick visual style of revenge movie but Liam made the movie totally amazing. He is the real reason for you to watch Taken.


A regular Luc Besson’s follower will probably knows there are some slick fist fight scenes, vehicle chasing, on-the-foot chasing (sorry, no parkour here) as usual. But bear in mind this is no Léon, Besson best flick to date. And let’s not kid ourself, as good as the central character can be, you only can expect nothing more than a pure adrenalin rushing high octane actioner with some low level of realism wrap around it. Oh, did I say Liam Neeson kick ass, hard?

1 star = Pathetic, SowYau feel ashamed of watching it
2 stars = Off the mark material, approach with caution
3 stars = Generally good, you should watch it if it's your favourite genre
4 stars = excellent, strongly recommended
5 stars = A classic status? only time will tell. But it is definitely in SowYau's Hall of Fame List

Terminator Salvation (McG, 2009)

Before I proceed with the writing on the latest installment of Terminator saga, I have a not-so-proud confession to make, I love T3: Rise of the Machines, love it to the extent of watching it in cinema twice and a few times at home since then. Ahh, I know, there goes my credibility, down the drain. But I really felt the critically panned T3 is underrated despite some obvious flaws. Do not forget it has the best ending among the series. A really downbeat ending and yet at the same time I felt like punching the air screaming: Yeah! Let’s the real fight between man and machines begin, bring it on! So, here we are, at the post-Judgment Day, the bleak future glimpses in throughout the previous three terminator movies. Those haunting images of swarming cyborgs blasting their pulse rifle, from the above horizon the ready-to-pounce Hunter Killer scanning for any moving target, the merciless red eyes endoskeleton looks right at your face.


Before I watch this, I sensibly told myself it will be impossible to match the greatness of T2, arguably the pinnacle of James Cameron’s movie making. T2 is a classic movie in every possible way. In this forth installment, the familiar prospects are gone, Mr Governor of California only lending his face as T-800 in a 5 seconds cameo scene, and it’s hard to imagine a terminator movie without him. Along with the Connors clan, he is the most essential character. Linda Hamilton’s voice appears as audio recorder owned by his son. In music score, the always my favourite Danny Elfman replaced Brad Fiedel to come up with some unmemorable one. To me, it’s definitely a “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” scenario, it’s pointless to compose a new score, unless you are able to top the Brad’s iconic metal thumping score, which I think not.

The tale of Terminator Salvation begin in pre-Judgment Day i.e. year 2003 where a death row inmate, Marcus Wright donate his body to a organization by the name of Cyberdyne System before his execution. Move forward to year 2018, the Resistance group consists of the nuclear holocaust survivor is still at war with the self-aware A.I. system, Skynet. The now adult John Connor is a high rank soldier but not the leader of the Resistance yet. Meanwhile Marcus Wright, wake up confused, find out he is facing hell on earth. Late he teams up with Kyle Reese, the future dad of John Connor (or is it in the past?) to meet up with John Connor. Unexpectedly, Kyle and other civilians are captured by Skynet. John needs to save his dad a without further delay as the Resistance intercepted Skynet’s message reveals Kyle Reese is on Skynet no.1 hit list. Marcus appears to be John’s only hope but can he trust Marcus or does Marcus have his own agenda? Well, anyone who watches the movie trailer will know Marcus is indeed a one-of-a-kind hybrid terminator (a terminator with vital organs like human brain) designed to infiltrate Resistance camp. He was programmed not to aware he is a machine.

Director Joseph McGinty Nichol AKA McG and production designer Martin Laing are given a daunting task to create a hellish apocalyptic future. Impressively, they created a desaturated landscapes and settings. Several new Terminators appear such as the huge 50-feet tall robot-Harvester, the clunky T-600, T-700, Moto-terminator who looks like a Ducati bike, eel-like Hydrobots who roam in the rivers. Audience who look for spectacular action set pieces will not be disappointed because it was nicely orchestrated and never quite let go. Especially in the pivotal vehicles chasing scenes involving the huge Harvester pursuing Marcus et al on the trucker, follow by the deployment of slick moto-terminator, shortly Aerial Hunter Killer and Resistance’s A-10 Jet join in the fray in this breathtaking scenes.

The intense, growling Christian Bale left his batman cape to become the messiah John Connor. Mr Bale sleepwalk through playing as John, because the role is tailored for him. John is a peripheral character who cross path with Marcus and Kyle, who will leave an influence of how will he become a great Resistance leader. Sam Worthington, the Aussie newcomer did a good job in portraying Marcus Wright. One standout scene shows when Marcus tries to sneak in to Skynet base, he accidentally bump into one of the cyborgs, to his relief, the machine accepted Marcus as one of its own after scanning him. The expression of Marcus’s ease of distress and acceptance of his fate as a cyborg is wonderfully pan out. Skynet may have possessed Marcus’ body but they underestimate the heart and soul of his. Kyle Reese, the father to the human saviour. I cannot held my delight when I saw a young Michael Biehn dead-ringer, The rising star Anton Yelchin. He definitely won my heart as the scruffy, vulnerable & courageous Kyle.


I am willing to bet that during the time the novice James Cameron making T1, he never envisage that he is going to expand his Terminator universe as depicted in numerous flashback sequences by Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) into full-fledged movie as per se. I am not ridiculing James Cameron, in fact I am a huge fan of T2 (it’s in my top 10 favourite). Some of the nick pick in T4 I think, is the rating of PG-13 (in US) may have compromise the true violence nature of the movie, for Pete’s sake, it’s a movie about robots and men killing each other in a full scale war! OK, here is the verdict, T1 and T2 is basically untouchable, so that left us with T3, and Terminator Salvation is marginally better than it. T3 is almost a rehash of T2 but minus its moody, great pacing script. Now for argument sake, to show glimpses of the future is much different compare to creating the whole shebang, therefore credit to McG for expanding the Terminator universe. T4 is basically the start of a new trilogy, the beginning of Skynet’s demise. If T4 meant to pave way for future installment, then there are in great start in terms of casting and production design. Just bear in mind: Terminator Salvation is a pure action movie where character development and plot-driven script is relegated to secondary aspect.

1 star = Pathetic, SowYau feel ashamed of watching it
2 stars = Off the mark material, approach with caution
3 stars = Generally good, you should watch it if it's your favourite genre
4 stars = excellent, strongly recommended
5 stars = A classic status? only time will tell. But it is definitely in SowYau's Hall of Fame List

Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian (Shawn Levy, 2009)

So, we are in Round 2, means another great adventure from the inhabitants of the NYC Museum of Natural History. The whole premise is basically a rehash of the 1st movie. A re-telling of an Egyptian gold tablet causes the museum exhibit to come alive. The movie studio who is behind the 1st flick probably thinks by recycle the plot, shifting the adventure to a bigger playground will be well embraced by the audience. But clearly this movie proves the law of diminishing in sequel.


After the adventurous event from the 1st movie, Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) the former nightguard of has moved on, founding Daley Devices, a company that sells his goofy invention. Meanwhile, the museum is set to close for upgrading works. Many of his old friends will be shipped to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. permanently, Only a few left behind such as the wax figure of Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams), The Skeleton T-Rex who act like a dog, the Dum-dum Statue from Easter Island. Meanwhile, the evil Egyptian Pharaoh, Kahmunrah, is after the gold tablet to release the army from the underworld to conquer the world. And it’s up to our nightguard Larry to stop them. Hmmm…. The plot of save the world from falling into villain’s hand, how original is that?


Although the existing casts return in this sequel, Jedediah the cowboy (Owen Wilson) is sadly a bit underused here together with his rival-turned-buddy, Emperor General Octavius. I always love Jedediah’s cockiness and his over-confidence lines. Gone too, is the Robin Williams’ portrayal of Teddy Roosevelt, he is reduced to a cameo role. There are many, many newly added character such as the feisty Amy Adams, as the female lead in the shape of Amelia Earhart(for your info, the actual Amelia is the 1st woman to fly across Atlantic in 1928). She provides the sidekick role to Larry. Then, there is a trio of nemesis consists of Napoleon Bonaparte, Ivan The Terrible (forgive my ignorance, but who is he?), Al Capone in monochrome, You have to see it for yourself, it’s kind of like the opposite of Pleasantville (made it 1999 starring Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon). There even got Darth Vader character in a funny gag!


Hank Azaria as Kahmunrah is somehow on hit and miss performance; at times he is absolutely hilarious when he blows his top and suddenly turning soft, other time he is trying too hard as in the flat, repetitive exchange between him and Larry. I am also squirmed by the Napoleon’s monotonous row with Larry or General Custer lame tactical speech scene, amongst others. Compare any of these lame scenes to 1st movie which, really make me chuckled and warm at the same time, for example, when Larry had a tough time dealing with Attilia the Hut, who is a hard nut to crack. But deep down his heart, all he need is a little cuddle and care which Larry gave him in the end.


NATM2:BATS is not as memorable as the original movie, but certainly sufficed as family adventure movie, just remember not to expect anymore from that. It has its own genuine funny moments although it’s “been here, done that” kind of gag. The 1st time viewers may engross by it, for patrons who have seen the 1st instalment must have felt that the magic and surprise element is clearly lacking here.



1 star = Pathetic, SowYau feel ashamed of watching it
2 stars = Off the mark material, approach with caution
3 stars = Generally good, you should watch it if it's your favourite genre
4 stars = excellent, strongly recommended
5 stars = A classic status? only time will tell. But it is definitely in SowYau's Hall of Fame List

Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón, 2006)

THE LAST ONE TO DIE PLEASE TURN OUT THE LIGHT, The graffiti in the movie is a chilling reminder for what is imminent.

Imagine what will cause the collapse of human civilization as we know it, will it be oil crisis, global warming, shortage of consumable water, alien invasion………? How about human infertility as address in this movie?


The bleak future depicted in the movie is a timely reminder that our so-called civil society is fragile at best. All it need is some catalyst to trigger the civilization downfall à la domino effect. Here are some very intriguing points to ponder: can u imagine living in a world without newborn babies? Knowing the world is slowly but soon (if you know what I am, kind of oxymoron) coming to a pitiful end with every years go by. What would be the point of ANYTHING without a reason to keep going? Everyone will lack motivation to do just about everything; there is no future, no aim to look forward to. What’s the point of going to work to earn decent wage? Why obey the law? If I am a scientist, why should I working on a cure to a cancer knowing that every man on this planet will be gone in less than say… 70 years. I will be having a hard time telling myself to move on with my life, I will slump to depression gradually.


This dystopian sci-fi flick is poles apart from what we have seen so much these years, remakes, re-imagines, sequels after sequels, prequels after prequels, worse still, some sequels are announced before the release of a movie.


The year is 2027, the last baby was born since 18 years ago. Britain is the only organized country governed by fascist ruling. Established modern societies around the world are collapsing, slowly eroded through anarchism. Millions of refugees flock to the country seeking for haven. The government severely cracking down any illegal immigrants, by detaining any suspected one, locking up in refuge camp before being deported.


Theo, the reluctant hero (played by Clive Owen) was asked by his estranged wife, (played by Julianne Moore) to secretly escort a miraculously pregnant refugee named Kee to a research vessel offshore across the country’s coast. Being possible the humanity’s only hope, the fight to ensure Kee reaching the scheduled destination may help scientists onboard to save the future of mankind.


There are strong casts features such as the suave Clive Owen character, Theo, who is a former peace activist turned bureaucrat. He may not be a testosterone-filled action hero but an average joe like him does not deliver snappy lines before gunning down some poor bastards. On the contrary, through out the movie he almost deliberately avoiding the usage of firearm to get him out of the dangerous situation.


Michael Caine played Jasper, a carefree, chatty, hippy pot-growing former cartoonist, his “pull my finger” fart joke reminds me of someone close to me, who used to do the exact stunt. Chiwetel Ejiofor and the newcomer Claire-Hope Ashitey Round up the cast as the leader of the resistant organization and the pregnant woman respectively.


Alfonso Cuarón, the director, fruitfully produced 2 major single-shot action sequences. One is the ambush-in-the-wood scene where the POV of the camera pan around incredibly smoothly inside, I repeat inside the moving car, then follow by the intense thugs attack.
Secondly, near the end, the 6 minutes urban warfare single shot sequence is superbly filmed with gritty, unsettling style. Imagine the huge amount of corroboration needed to achieve such mounting task.


This is one of those rare movies that I proclaim loving it so much the more I watch it. The scene where the crying infant temporary stopping the war moved me to tears and at the same time put a huge grin on my face. It was such a beautiful scene. I went into this movie with huge expectation and yet I was craving for more by the time it ended on a satisfying note.

Bullet PLUS Points:
- Breathtaking cinematography
- A thinking man’s action movie
- A fitting political commentary
- Clive Owen as believable and reluctant hero
- Relatively an un-Hollywood style

1 star = Pathetic, SowYau feel ashamed of watching it
2 stars = Off the mark material, approach with caution
3 stars = Generally good, you should watch it if it's your favourite genre
4 stars = excellent, strongly recommended
5 stars = A classic status? only time will tell. But it is definitely in SowYau's Hall of Fame List