Premiere Screening of The Equalizer

The Equalizer (2014) is a action thriller genre movie based on the television series on the same name staring Denzel Washington, Marton Csokas, Chloe Grace Moretz, David Harbour, Haley Bennett, Bill Pullman and Melissa Leo.

The plot unveils introducing Robert McCall a retired black ops working in a hardware store having a quiet life.  He has given a promise to his late wife he will not go back to his old life, yet when his friend a young girl was beaten by a Russian mob member he involves in a series of fights with them. McCall learns that he can continue to help the desperate people in need and identify himself as 'The Equalizer'.
 

I thought it would be a lone ranger movie that does not carry any authenticity. But then with the Denzel Washington charisma it could not go wrong. Even the other characters, specially the sociopath Russian fixer also deliver a strong performance. And Denzel Washington has given some cheeky one lines throughout the movie only to find that in some scenes it sound s off the storyline.

One negative aspect of this movie is that it carries higher level of violence. Even the fighting and killing scenes are shown in a slow motion that almost looks creepy to the audience.  And the length of the movie is longer than the usual time, so the viewers find many dull and unexciting moments.

Nevertheless The Equalizer  is a entertaining movie one will not regret watching. Thanks to Nuffnang for providing the premiere tickets.

Premiere Screening of The Boxtrolls

The Boxtrolls (2014) is one of the best animations movies of this season as it is a movie that you expected to show the children for sure.

The Boxtrolls (2014) is a 3D motion animated movie based on a fantasy comedy novel 'Here be Monsters'.  It stars Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Ben Kingsley, Elle Fanning, Toni Collette, Jared Harris, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Richard Ayoade and Tracy Morgan.

It is a story about a boy named "Eggs" (you have to watch and get to know why this weird name is given for him) who was raised by the trash collecting trolls. The story unfolds relieving his adventures to save the destiny of the boxtrolls from the hands of evil pest controller named Archibold Snatcher and eventually finding his lost family. 

The storyline is very effective in bringing out the adventurous journey Eggs takes to bring peace to the boxtrolls. It is one of the animation movies that will bring so much of entertainment for the children and the adults.

This wide eyed boxtrolls who wear empty boxes as clothes and run around collecting garbage are the most innocent creatures one can ever create. Although they are harmless the legends about them says that boxtrolls are destroyers, man eaters and steal children. The truth is they are so frightened of the humans.

It is a good movie for children, as it shows the importance of not believing everything they hear but to learn to explore the world. 
Overall it is a pretty awesome movie that cannot be missed. I bet you will have a good time watching it. 
 And not forgetting a huge thanking note for Nuffnang for giving the premiere screening movie passes to watch The Boxtrolls. 

Premiere Screening of Planes: Fire and Rescue

Planes: Fire and Rescue (2014) is a American animated adventure film which is a sequel to the 2013 movie Planes. It is produced by DisneyToon Studios. The voices for the main characters are given by Dane Cook, Stacy Keach, Brad Garrett, Teri Hatcher, Danny Mann and Cedric the Entertainer.

 
The storyline is about a plane named Dusty Crophopper finally gives up his famed role as a racer as he finds that his gearbox is damaged and that specific type of gearbox is out of production. He then gets an offer to become a firefighter, which eventually teach him winning is not the most important thing in life.

Although the storyline is a clear and a simple one, it represents some of the negative aspects in the adult world such as competition, work politics and bureaucracy. So I don't believe that this movie is only intended for children.

It carries amazing images of the landscape when dusty fly over the mountains of the national Park will remain in the children's mind for along time. And this movie is dedicated for the firefighters, which indeed is remarkable as the children are given an opportunity to be open for the sacrifices the others make each day to make this world a better place.

When comparing to the movies such as "Up" this movie lacks certain aspects of bringing out emotions, even-though can recommend as a suitable movie for the children.

I would like to thank Nuffnang for giving me the movie passes for the premiere screening of the Planes: Fire and Rescue (2014) and for the merchandize. 

Premiere Screening of The Maze Runner

This may be the season of sci-fi movies since several movies on this genre has appeared on screen for the past few months. The maze Runner (2014) is a sci-fi thriller movie created based on a fantasy trilogy novel in the same name by James Dashner.

The story unveils as Thomas, a boy in his teens waking up inside a huge maze with a group of other boys. He has no memory of the outside world or how he came to this place which they call the Glade. Later he finds out that every 30 days once the Glade receives a boy who's memory has totally wiped out. The usual happens when they receive a girl (Theresa), with a note saying this is the last one. Thomas finds that there is a connection between him and the girl, but he could not figure it out.

He started remembering the past in a scattered manner after he got stung by a mechanical creature called Grievers. There he finds that he might be their only hope of escaping from the maze and end this misery. The rest of the story revolves around him and his friends trying to escape from the place. They finally manage to escape and for their despair they find that they all had been part of an experiment.

As the movie is based on a young adult fantasy novel, their target audience also seemed more towards the teenage viewers. The cast is full of young actors and actresses. Among them is the Dylan O. Brien (Thomas) from the TV series Teen Wolf, who indeed shows some strong performance.

This futuristic teen thriller seems dragging as the viewers waiting for more and more information, most of the beginning part of the movie shows a set of incidents taking place in a large field. Nevertheless the landscape and the scenery of the countryside  is indeed remarkable.

The storyline is different from the others. In much deeper meaning it looks like the storyline is speaking of the bravery of a young boy to break free of the ordinary social systems and the oppression he receives on this battle.

I hope the teenagers will enjoy this movie, as this adventurous journey of a small group of adolescents for freedom is a very enthusiastic  one.

Premiere Screening of The Signal

The Signal (2014) is one of the recent Sci-fi movies that failed to keep the viewers amused. This 97 minute sci-fi thriller keeps you confused from beginning to the end. 

It is directed by William Eubank starring Laurence Fishburne, Brenton Thwaites and Olivia Cooke and was released in the United States on the 13th of June 2014. The story begins with three MIT students Nick, Johah and Haley going on a road trip, while following a hacker named NOMAD. They end up at a facility that looks like a laboratory compound that does human experiment (with white background). The rest of the movie is built on them trying to break out of that facility.

The Signal director tries to keep the plot too mysterious and too smart as the main character Nick and his friends are MIT students who runs after a powerful hacker leaving you to think that this will be hard for normal people to understand. And then the plot suddenly gets highly mysterious as no information is given on the location or the processes that have been taken place. That you can at least bear thinking the explanation will sort out all the doubts and confusion.

The viewers get more frustrated as nearing the end huge amount of information is thrown but rather than lessening the confusion it creates more questions ever. I guess the director failed to give the explanation in a artistic manner or the shocking experience that he wanted the viewers to feel.

The storyline is loosely connected and the performances of the actors are not justifying each character's personality. The romantic connection between Nick and Haley is given much importance yet they failed to prove that to the audience. Even if the girl's character is there or not it does not affect the main message the plot brings.

This movie seems spooky at times specially when Nick meets the lady stranger and what takes thereafter in the laboratory. I feel it deviates from the main story the director wants to represents because he tries to make it so mysterious in every sense. And the flashbacks from the past Nick running in the woods, happy moments with Haley, them trying to find this NOMAD hacker and the river that flows peacefully in front of him keeps the viewer so confused. I believe that certain scenes brings metaphorical perspective into a cinematic experience, but showing unrelated scenes just confuse people when taking this as a sci-fi movie.

The publicity that they yearn when the slogan saying ' Are You Agitated?' finally sounds like a bluff as nothing seems really related to the story. And similar like The Anomaly (2014), The Signal (2014) keeps reminding the viewers that its a very low budgeted movie. And not forgetting to mention that the only experienced actor in this movie is Laurence Fishburne, yet you could not expect such poor performances from him. 

Nevertheless I really do appreciate the Team KLIPS for providing me the movie premiere screening passes for The Signal (2014).

Director : William Eubank

Starring : Laurence Fishburne, Brenton Thwaites, Olivia Cooke

Running Time : 97 minutes

Rating: 4.5/10 

Premiere Location : GSC, One Utama

Premiere Screening of The Hundred Foot Journey

I have never been pleased watching a movie like The Hundred Foot Journey (2014). It's simply a dish to crave for. 

The story begins at the suburbs of India, by introducing a family that runs a small restaurant where the second son named Kadam Hassan (Manish Dayal) is taking his first steps in learning the world of taste. From the beginning it is revealed that Hassan is indeed a gifted child chef (who keeps telling that he is a cook) who found the ultimate happiness is making the gastronomical dishes. Hassan's father decides finding luck and a stable life for his family at a breathtaking village in France. The conflicts started happening between Hassan's father (only known as Papa) and Madame Mallory (Hellen Mirren) who are equally arrogant in their own ways. Hassan finds favor in Madame Mallory's eyes as she finds he is a gifted young person who needs a hand to reach the recognition he deserves in the world of culinary arts.

The Hundred Foot Journey is such a heartwarming movie which explores the depth human temperaments on compassion, arrogance, competition, respect, sympathy, pride and human understanding. It opens our eyes that regardless the culture every  one of us build our own walls so that our world seems smaller and rigid. This movie  gives a perspective that change is beautiful in a world that is so stagnant.

Madame Mallory as well as Papa both share the same principles that they cling on to dearly that anything that seem different to those principles are taken as threats. The character building of these two people are so hilarious as the rigidity of the personalities from the older generation is presented in a touching manner.

 

In contrast the blooming friendship between beautiful Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon) and Hassan shows the compassion and love they share. This irresistible Marguerite brings in the sweetness of human nature in to the movie that you will remember forever. It is a feel good movie that proves again and again a theme that is so simple and straightforward can bring so much of joy to the viewers.

And this delightful actor Manish Dayal indeed presents a remarkable delivery of the strong will young man who thrives in a world of endless competition. Manish Dayal indeed proves that he is ready for the bigger roles in the future.

 

Needless to say the performance of Helen Mirren as she could be the best person to present this aristocratic hard headed arrogant lady who sacrifices her life for the sake of culinary arts. 

Helen Mirren is no surprise for the viewers, but Om Puri (Papa) might not be so familiar to the Hollywood cinema. Nevertheless the Bollywood fans knows that Om Puri is capable of handling the hardest roles as his charisma and talent has proven that for many decades. This hysterically funny duo having the competition of their life until they find respect and mutual understanding that help them to break down the old walls to build up a beautiful friendship.

Even if you are not interested in culinary arts the scenes of exquisite dishes in this movie will tantalize your senses to give it a second thought.Combined it with the breathtaking scenery of a village in France is the luscious recipe you will experience this summer. 

 

The Hundred Foot Journey presents rather than going into competition between cultures, the combination gives a prominent result.It takes everyone to take few steps ahead from where they are born, raised and lived their entire life to see the beauty in other people's lives. Although its hard at the beginning they will have the taste of great achievements in touching each others souls. 

Have a feel good evening with the family watching this mouth watering scenes blended with heartwarming story. Guaranteed that you will have a wonderful time.

Finally I would like to thank Team KLIPS for providing me the screening passes for this remarkable movie 'The Hundred Foot Journey'.

Director : Lasse Hallström

Starring : Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Manish Dayal, Charlotte Le Bon

Running Time : 155 minutes

Rating: 9.5/10 

Premiere Location : GSC, Paradigm Mall

Premiere Screening of Lucy

Lucy (2014) is undeniably one of the most awaited movies of this summer, simply because Scarlett Johansson is having the lead character and the trailer looks so ravishing making it too good to be missed. It is a French science fiction movie written and directed by Luc Besson, starring Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman and Amr Waked. It is a production of Europacorp and to be released in Malaysian cinema on the 21st of August 2014. 

The movie revolves around a character named Lucy (Scarlett Johansson), a 25 year old American girl who studies in Taipei. Her boyfriend tricks her into delivering a package (without knowing the content inside the silver briefcase) to a Korean mob leader named Mr. Jang whereby she is captured and the package of drugs is sewn inside her abdomen. The drug is introduced as CPH4, a synthetic drug that is high in value and their target is to transport it into the European market. During her captivity, one of the guards show sexual advance towards her leading into a physical fight and the guard  kicks her resulting a damage in the package in her abdomen. This releases a huge amount of CPH4 into her blood stream  making her gaining higher level of physical and mental capabilities. There are a range of abilities she gains such as telepathy, telekinetic power, resistance to physical pain, travel through time and higher level of intelligence. 

Along with her story, the movie reveals about the theoretical ideas of Professor Samuel Norman, who explains the possibilities that can be  achieved along with the increase of brain functioning. After assaulting Mr. Jang, Lucy finds that there are another three drug mules who carries this synthetic drug within themselves and starts following them. Lucy reveals about her capabilities to Professor Norman as she believes he can help her to overcome the destructive side-effects of the CPH4. She finds her way to Paris in search of the drug mules, where she encounter the meeting with the local police officer Pierre Del Rio (Amr Waked) who ends up helping her get through her way with the mob gangs. Professor Norman convinces her to share her knowledge with the world as he explains that the most important thing in human life is to pass the knowledge. Ending shows that she reaches the fullest (100%) brain capacity before an attack on her, and she disappears into space time continuum telling that everything is connected via time and existence can only be explained through time. 

Obviously Lucy (2014) takes a different theme altogether as it explores the possibilities a human could reach if they use the fullest brain capacity. The transformation of the naive girl into the human bomb is taken place along with the explanations that Professor Norman delivers so that the viewers get a complete idea on whats been taken place. But it does harm in a way because the movie almost started sound like a documentary. As expected Lucy (2014) keeps you entertained as anything in Morgan Freeman voice sounds authentic and believable as well as the ever gorgeous Scarlett Johansson has a very rare tendency to disappoint us. In giving those two talented actors these main roles the director has taken a wise decision.

 

While the story unfold, the famous neuroscientist Professor Norman, keeps representing his theoretical ideas of the increase in brain capacity along with the abilities a person gains so that Lucy's physical and mental abilities are been revealed to the viewers. Professor Norman's audience asks various questions related to the topic making the viewers more opened to the subject at hand. 

I like the plot, specially given that it is a science fiction. Hence the character building seems rather distant from each other raising many doubts. The police officer, Captain Pierre's character also is a notable one, although until the end scene what he does is following Lucy around. And again who wants to use their own authority in front of Lucy the supreme human being! 

Luc Besson has given the name Lucy for his protagonist by the influence of the famous fossilized skeleton Lucy. So it seems he is celebrating the evolution of the human kind in a  story that is based on a ultimate level of human intelligence.

But he fails to understand viewers point specially when he created a scene of Lucy killing a patient on the operation theater to do a surgery on herself. Because soon after the killing everything is back to normal that no one seems to be bothered about the killing which leaves viewers wondering other possibilities. 

The cinematography on this movie is rather interesting. Luc Besson uses many metaphors to show emotions through scenes such as stalking cheetah after an antelope to show nearing danger towards Lucy. May be he was trying to show that we all share the same instincts though they differ as species. I liked it because the topic not only should celebrate the human evolution alone, but to give a message that every living being is connected. 

Another thing to be noted here is that almost all the dialogues are by Lucy and Professor Normn, and very less amount of talking is done by the others. The mob leader apparently has no lines in English to say, leaving us thinking it is so fake specially as he is a businessman who does so much of foreign dealing. 

And one thing the director forgot to justify why the mob or the mob leader has no clue about the synthetic drug (he only knows its highly valuable) they plan to sell, not in the streets of Taipei but the entire market in Europe. Because of a small amount could give such power to an ordinary man, why wasn't it been used by the gang to increase their own powers.

Although it is a proven fact that Morgan and Johansson both are having unique and interesting voices, there should have been much consideration on the involvement of the other minor characters. Because it is almost sound like a two people narration at times.

Even the police officer itself has not given much dialogues, which I find as a drawback because there should have been authentic representation of the people involved in the story itself. And certain powers that she gains such as controlling of telephone and television from a distance and controlling the growth of her physical organs is not explained.  The viewers feel bombarded with lots of information but cannot digest all very fast as the theoretical explanation seems far behind.

If you ask me whether it is worth watching it, I can easily say 'yes'. The movie's interesting theme keeps you exploring on the information that is presented, and perceive the endless possibilities that are there for us yet to be opened. 

Head towards the cinema even if you are not a science fiction lover. It will give you a interesting subject area to dwell within on your free time while enjoying the Scarlett Johansson's company.  

Finally a great big thank you note to Nuffnang, for their gracious help in providing the premiere screening tickets. 

Director : Luc Besson 

Starring : Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Amr Waked

Running Time : 89 minutes

Rating: 7/10 

Premiere Location : GSC, 1 Utama