Premiere Screening of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

Storyline:

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies brings to an epic conclusion the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, Thorin Oakenshield and the Company of Dwarves. Having reclaimed their homeland from the Dragon Smaug, the Company has unwittingly unleashed a deadly force into the world. Enraged, Smaug rains his fiery wrath down upon the defenseless men, women and children of Lake-town. Obsessed above all else with his reclaimed treasure, Thorin sacrifices friendship and honor tohoard it as Bilbo's frantic attempts to make him see reason drive the Hobbit towards a desperate and dangerous choice. But there are even greater dangers ahead. Unseen by any but the Wizard Gandalf, the great enemy Sauron has sent forth legions of Orcs in a stealth attack upon the Lonely Mountain. As darkness converges on their escalating conflict, the races of Dwarves, Elves and Men must decide - unite or be destroyed. Bilbo finds himself fighting for his life and the lives of his friends in the epic Battle of the Five Armies, as the future of Middle-earth hangs in the balance.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies presents the story prior to The Lord of the Rings and makes a very clear connection between the two stories. The ending especially of this story is a great cinematographic effort. 

If you had doubts about the other two previous instalments, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies provides most of the answers. Although the storyline is pretty tight and serious it does carry some light moments of humour. 

Kili’s death and the scene of Tauriel holding his body is such an emotional. And the way Saruman strongly saying that there will be another encounter with Sauron will give you goosebumps. Also the scenes of Bilbo trying to hide the truth about the ring is pretty funny as we have already know what happened in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. 

Bilbo, Gandalf, Legolas, Tauriel, Thorin, Bard the Bowman to the smallest character are given a moment to shine, so the whole movie is so full of life and colour.

Make sure you will catch up with this amazing movie experience of a life time. Guaranteed you will have a remarkable time.

 Thank you so much Nuffnang. Thanks for the opportunity to catch up The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (3D) premiere screening at the IMAX one Utama.

Director : Peter Jackson

Starring : Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Luke Evans, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly, Aidan Turner, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Lee Pace

Genre:  Action and Adventure, Fantasy

Running Time : 144 minutes

Rating: 9/10 

Premiere Location : IMAX TGV, One Utama
16th of December 2014

Premiere Screening of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014)

Storyline:

The story follows the exploits of 11-year-old Alexander (Ed Oxenbould) as he experiences the most terrible and horrible day of his young life-a day that begins with gum stuck in his hair, followed by one calamity after another. But when Alexander tells his upbeat family about the misadventures of his disastrous day, he finds little sympathy and begins to wonder if bad things only happen to him. He soon learns that he's not alone when his mom (Jennifer Garner), dad (Steve Carell), brother (Dylan Minnette) and sister (Kerris Dorsey) all find themselves living through their own terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Anyone who says there is no such thing as a bad day just hasn't had one. 

Beginning to the end it is a painfully hilarious story that narrates a simple day to day life and how things can go wrong. It reveals the characteristics of highly positive minded family members who only see the best in everything opposite to Alexander who finds every day is a struggle. To make things worse his family ignores the difficulties he goes through.

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is a pleasant comedy that is in its simplest form. There is so much of humour derived from the day today shenanigans throughout this 80 minute movie. Though it focuses on the entertaining aspect of this family drama it does brings out the good morals a family should uphold.

 The father’s character by Steve Carrell is really charming as he brings in his usual charismatic personality. His character is amazingly optimistic putting even our best days into shame. Even during his worst day his presentation of frustration is just too good.

 

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is a family movie that everyone can have a great entertaining time together. Thanks to Nuffnag for providing the chance to catch up the premiere screening.

Director : Miguel Arteta

Starring : Ed Oxenbould, Jennifer Garner, Steve Carell, Dylan Minnette, Kerris Dorsey

Genre:  Comedy, Kids and Family

Running Time : 80 minutes

Rating: 8/10 

Premiere Location : TGV, One Utama
2nd of December 2014

Premiere Screening of Gone Girl (2014)

Storyline:

On the occasion of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) reports that his beautiful wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), has gone missing. Under pressure from the police and growing media frenzy, Nick's portrait of a blissful union begins to crumble. Soon his lies, deceits and strange behaviour have everyone asking the same dark question: Did Nick Dunne kill his wife?

The Gone Girl (2014) is created based on Gillian Flynn’s novel on the same name. Throughout the film you can see the narration done by the key characters of Nick and Amy. 

It is a thriller bringing suspense throughout the running time, the performances of both Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike are remarkable. Their performances continuesly push you to think what is the truth and the right and wrong.

It could have been presented with short and sweet manner than dragging the story for too long. There are moments the audience lack interest. Nevertheless it carries some moments of high level of suspense and unusual twists that the audience feels curious to know the truth.

Director : David Fincher

Starring : Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry

Running Time : 149 minutes

Rating: 8/10 

Premiere Location : TGV, One Utama
9th of December 2014

Premiere Screening of Horrible Bosses 2 (2014)

If you have already watched the Horrible Bosses (2011) it is really normal for you to be curious over its sequel which is to be opened to the public tomorrow, 27th of November 2014.

The Horrible Bosses 2 stars Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Jamie Foxx, Chris Pine, Kevin Spacey and Christoph Waltz. It is directed by Sean Anders, produced by Brett Ratner, Jay Stern and John Morris and the screen play was written by Sean Anders and  John Morris.

Story Line:

After Nick, Dale, and Kurt decide to launch their own business, Burt Hanson, a savvy investor, appears to take them down. With no other viable option in sight, the trio decide to kidnap Hanson's son Rex in order to put up a ransom to take back their business.

Similar to the  previous one the story line is a not so complicated piece that focuses on bringing humor in every situation. Even if the movie does not carry a strong storyline, simply the presence of  Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis gives a really good edge for the comedy loving fans.

I will stiff prefer the first one compared to the sequel although I did enjoyed the movie. A really big thanking note to Churp Churp for giving the premiere Screening tickets to catch the Horrible Bosses 2 yesterday. If you are searching for a stress reliever this can be the perfect remedy. :)

Director : Sean Anders

Starring :Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Jamie Foxx, Chris Pine, Kevin Spacey, Christoph Waltz

Running Time : 108 minutes

Rating: 5.5/10 

Premiere Location : TGV, One Utama
25th of November 2014

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