September Movies

6:35:00 PM

Hey guys...

Time for another monthly movies round up! Time flies so fast i almost feel like i'm doing this weekly instead of monthly *LOL*!

1. Lucy

Saw the trailer, kinda loved it, waited for it impatiently-then read a review about it having a very weird and disappointing ending (this is why i don't read reviews much before i watch the movie, too easily suggested!)-anticipating the disappointing ending and true enough... It really was *LOL*. In all fairness, i believe i'd still hate the ending even if i haven't read the review beforehand!

Lucy was an ordinary woman, caught in a dark deal when the assignment that was supposed to be very simple (delivering a suitcase) went all wrong. She was captured and forced to carry a new synthetic drug inside her stomach, but the bag leaked and gave her sudden "super power" that unlocks her ability to use her brain capacity, and it keeps on increasing. She became a merciless warrior, intent on getting back on her captors. With more and more ability unlocked, she somewhat became less humane-what happens when she reach 100%?

I always thought i'm not a fan of sci-fi movies, but i actually really love this type of movies (as well as The Island, stuffs that's got to do with cloning of human re-engineering, oh and artifical inteligents too!)! The idea is quite exciting and the movie started up good, the action parts were quite nice too-up to the last 10 minutes or so where the strange and pointless ending began. Would i recommend you to watch this movie? Yes, if you like this type of sci-fi stuffs like i do, but be warned : the ending is weird. LOL.

2. Hercules

Wonder why is it lately if one studio makes a remake/adaptation of a famous movie/story then other studios would do the same? Wouldn't the repeated story/idea hurt the movie sales? Well... What do i know... Anyway, never been a huge fan of Hercules (i think i did enjoyed watching the series on TV when i was little though! That's why the image of Kevin Sorbo is the Hercules i always have in my brain whenever i heard the name, it's hard to put another face in his place!) so when yet another adaptation of Hercules is released, i was not excited at all. Hunny in the other hand, loves Dwayne Johnson (can you believe i do too? I think he's silly, funny and seems like a very nice person hahaha) so yeah... We ended up watching it anyway.

After twelve arduous labour and losing his loving family in a tragic way, Hercules-the son of Zeus (or is he? You-and him-would be left questioning about this thoughout the movie) turned his back on gods and became a sword-for-hire with his six comrades. One day King of Thrace seek him out to train his armies into the become the greatest army of all time.

I find this movie a bit flat and boring for my liking-never reached its peak, even with the humorous sprinkles here and there-it just wasn't exciting or engaging enough for me. And personally i prefer Dwayne Johnson flexing his scary muscles in some crazy tutu (Tooth Fairy :D) that would leave me in stitches for days instead of trying to look pained and brooding at all time-it just doesn't suit him! I do prefer this movie then Kellan Lutz' one since it's less icky (heheh, but i seemed to like that movie in my review, must've been the epic set and CGI *LOL*), and hunny said it focuses more on Hercules' humanity than the demi God part so that's sort of interesting, it's not a bad movie but i don't think it's a must watch at all.

3. Haunt

I am forever hungry for a good horror movie >.<, so when Haunt finally played in local cinemas i immediately dragged hunny to watch it (it's a bit old, a 2013 movie). I always keep my expectation to a minimal whenever i go to watch a horror movie since 8 out of 10 that i watch fall flat and become a total disappointment-so when i have no to low expectation, it wouldn't hurt that much if it sucks!

Like 1000 other horror movie, the story started when a family of five moved to a new home that was a place of personal tragedy (a family was killed one by one while residing there, although not always inside the house). The introverted son made friend with a mysterious neighbourhood girl, together they found and experienced with an old radio that can supposedly communicate with the dead-unleashing a whole new horror.

Haunt was unexpectedly quite good! Well, i probably have quite a very cheesy taste in horror movies, i like build up emotions, effective sound effect, jump-out-your-seat scenes and fugly ghosts! Some reviewers seems to find these qualities to be quite tiring and boring, not for me! I much prefer this type of psychological horror with a few scenes of scary ghosts rather than Mama type with over-narcissistic ghost that keeps on popping up every 5 minutes, making me feel completely immune to its supposed "scariness".

It is an epic horror movie? No. Is it awesome and have a chance to be one of my all time horror movie? Hell, no! But it's good enough that it fell into the 2 out of 10 horror movies that don't totally suck in my book! As usual, there were strangeness and disconnectedness in the storyline that made me question a lot of things (like, how on earth did the very pretty neighborhood girl knew what the radio was and how to use it? And how come his entire family's so cool with some mysterious girl keeps on spending the night in his bed and actually leave them alone doing whatever they are doing (and they are doing it, alright! LOL)? But i've come to term that i would always have lingering unanswered questions when it comes to horror movies! I would recommend for huge horror buffs to give this movie a chance, you might ended up enjoying it as much as i did!

4. The Purge : Anarchy

I didn't even know that this movie is a sequel until i read the review in IMDb, but you can definitely watch this movie without watching the first one (which i heard to be terrible. The reviewer went as far as crossing off the statement "There's no such thing as a good sequel", saying that The Purge : Anarchy is a LOT better than its predecessor), i could follow the storyline easily without any confusion whatsoever.

The world is at a total chaos and current American government reckon that the only thing they can do to keep crime rate as low as possible is to have an annual purge. For 12 hours, any crime (including murder) is legal, 911 and police go into shutdown and hospitals closed for that period of time. A young couple stranded on the street after their car broke down, a mother-daughter run from their home after it was destroyed and a man on a mission found themselves together trying to survive the night.

I thought the idea of the purge is crazy but quite fascinating (it got me thinking, if it's really happening in real life-i would go out of the country for a week or so. LOL. What a scary scary world it'd be! And i don't think i have a single bone in me that wants to hurt anyone that badly to want to be able to do anything to them-even without prosecution! And the idea of wealthy people paying people to purge on them? Makes me sick to my stomach!), the movie itself was quite good-it's quite fast paced and action-packed, not boring even with a very straight forward storyline (there isn't much of it *LOL*). It's a bit brutal, but it is a thriller after all. I'd recommend thriller movies lovers to watch it for a slightly different kind of your regular massacre/serial killer movies!

5. The November Man

For me one of the most handsome guy who's old enough to be my father would always be Pierce Brosnan (the ultimate one would be Eric Roberts though!), so... I would never mind catching a movie starring him! There's also Luke Bracey-that was quite eye catching in a cold-but-sexy kind of way, but personally i find him overshadowed quickly by Pierce Brosnan's charms.

An ex-CIA was brought back on a very personal mission, found himself face to face with his former pupil involving high level CIA officials and Russian president-elect. Yes, i'm pretty much copy-pasting the synopsis from the IMDb page but i couldn't find any other words to describe it *LOL*.

It's an action movie, full stop. There isn't much storyline except the one i copy-pasted above (add a dash of a sexy lady needing to be rescued, someone who's-like always-not quite someone that she appears to be), having said that-it's still a pretty decent action movie. Not boring, action packed, enough "drama" without making it soppy/draggish (and Pierce Brosnan is always convincing in his acting...) but still more intelligent than your average shoot-at-anyone-that-moves kind of action movie. It's not fantastic, but it's not bad and if you're looking for an entertaining 1.5 hours with good looking older leading man who still got what it takes with pretty impressive action sequences, you can give November Man a watch.

6. The Four 3

The final installment of the Trilogy, what can i say... It's similar to the previous movies *LOL*. I am not much of a Chinese fantasy slash wuxia movies, even though i am huge fan of fantasy movies and Chinese martial art movies separately. It's not like i hated all three of The Four movies, i can watch it and be immersed in it, it's just not something i'd opt to watch if not to compromise with my hunny for dragging him to watch ghost movies/chickflicks.

Picking up from the last movie, Emotionless (seriously, wuxia names... WTF) separated herself from the others in Divine Constabulary, including her beloved Cold Blood (*__*). The (silly) emperor was attacked and pronounced missing, while the bad guys making their moves to take over the throne. It is up to Divine Constabulary officers to find the emperor and restore balance of the government.

Even trying to give you a synopsis is giving me a headache since wuxia movies plots are always so... erratic that it's quite hard to explain *LOL*. I always find it hard to catch up with what is happening in the movies, and it took me half an hour to finally connect the dots (even so, not fully) and recognizing who is who (except the leads because they're pretty clear, and after three movies-at least i am not so stupid that i cannot remember them hahaha). After the first half an hour (which i found very slow and boring), the movie picked up with loads of action that i ceased to be bored and finally got immersed in it.

It's not like, a must watch or anything, but it's coming from a non-wuxia enjoying person, so... If you like comic-bookish Chinese superhero kind of stuffs, you might enjoy The Four (and if you've watched the previous movies, then you'd need a closure like me :p). For me the highlight is actually recognizing the stupid emperor as my childhood superstar (back then they were like today's kids' EXO haha) Alec Su (or back then, Tommy Su). I can't believe he still look exactly the way he did some 20 years ago (i was a fan of Little Tigers in elementary school, mainly for Nicky Wu)! The perfect example of how Asians don't age *LOL*.

That's all i got for September movies reviews! Nothing exciting, i just realized *LOL*. I already watched three movies in October and all of them more exciting than these September movies! Lots of good movies playing, my "to-watch" list is growing longer!

Toodles!