Sex and Zen: Extreme Fantasy (肉蒲团之极乐宝鉴) (2011)

Back in the 1960s and 70s, Shaw Brothers made softcore erotic titles. With director Li Han-hsiang, the softcore film genre was raised to an art...

Sex and Zen: Extreme Fantasy is a cruel, perverse attempt at approximating this by-gone era.

It's not erotica of the good old days. Watch this only if you'd like to see Wong Jing's crass, lame humour and unimaginative visual jokes in an erotic film.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 22 July 2011.

A Summer in Genoa (2008)

A grieving widower uproots his family to a foreign city, where his daughters experience sexual awakening and possibly a haunting.

A horror film is when you start off with an unhappy family and attribute its domestic angst to malicious supernatural causes.

In this film, we start off with an unhappy family and attribute what appears to be malicious supernatural hauntings to the family’s own domestic angst. It's an interesting take on the horror genre.

Read my full review on Fridae, first published on 20 July 2011.

Bridesmaids (2011)

"Hollywood innovation": Chick flick gets the gender reversed fratboy movie treatment.

Bridesmaids is what you’d get if you put Paul Rudd, Vince Vaughn, Zach Galifiankis, et al in skirts and released them on a set.

Watch this if you've always wanted to see Rudd, Vaugh, Galifiankis do their schtick in skirts, because this is as close as you can get.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 20 July 2011.

Henry's Crime (2010)

A man convicted of a heist he didn't commit comes to appreciate the saying "If you did the time, you might as well do the crime."

The premise, script, and execution are paint by numbers - which isn't to say it's inferior in any way.

The fun is all in the stunt casting of Keanu Reeves as the protagonist, who cannot act and yet joins a repertory theatre as part of the heist scheme.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 20 July 2011.

Brown Sugar (น้ำตาลแดง) (2010)

This erotic anthology is to Bangkok what Paris Je'taime is to Paris.

Bangkok here is a sensual city whose inhabitants fall under its spell, succumbing to the multitudinous aspects of love. Old love, new love...

Sadly, the shorts are very hit and miss. It is the final poignant short, a beautiful meditation on loneliness and alienation, that truly deserves the stamp of arthouse erotica.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 13 July 2011.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2 (2011)

David Yates, who made what must have been the worst installment of the Harry Potter series, returns for Deathly Hallows 2.

If Part 1 with its expository overkill felt like Kill Bill Vol. 2, Part 2 feels like an all action, no breather Kill Bill Vol. 1.

It's a pity because several interesting plot points in the novel are either severely truncated or ditched entirely, like Dumbledore's gay past.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 13 July 2011.

Beautiful Lies (Le Vrais Mensonges) (2010)

Beautiful Lies brings back old playful flirtation and intellectual seduction in its old school, new spin on Cyrano de Bergerac.

Hilarity understandably ensues when you throw in romantic misunderstandings, multiple impersonations, and thwarted love with a class war between the love interests.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 6 July 2011.

Four (หลุดสี่หลุด) (2011)

Four jaded Thai horror directors come together to make a very old school horror compendium.

The shorts may remind you of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone episodes.

That's how stripped down to the basics of horror storytelling this film goes. Don't bother if you want to see gore, special effects, and prosthetics.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 6 July 2011.