50/50 (2011)

Up to very recently, a story about someone dying of cancer only means a triple-hanky Hollywood weepie.

Here the entire genre and its conventions (the sufferer becoming more beautiful when slowly dying, etc) are subverted and mocked. It's as close to real life as it gets!

It's highly watchable because of the heroic romanticism of the Hollywood weepie is replaced by real life humour.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 30 November 2011.

White Vengeance (鸿门宴传奇) (2011)

When a despotic dynasty falls, 2 generals come to face to face as they mop up the old country. White Vengeance settles on their fraught peace conference.

The conceit is simple: White Vengeance is to the pre-Han what the Battle of the Red Cliffs was to the Three Kingdoms. Machiavellian politicians abound, trading political strategems with plots and counter-plots.

The premise alas doesn't sell; the script is underwritten, the characters flattened, and the audience trusted to know their history and the film's conceit to do the director's work for him.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 30 November 2011.

Arthur Christmas (2011)

Santa misses a delivery to a very important child one Christmas and it's up to Arthur, his other, undistinguished son, to save the day.

Highly predictable, Arthur Christmas is also highly entertaining thanks to Aardman Studio's detailed creation of a high tech South Pole.

And since it's Aardman we're talking about, the highlight of the film are its visual comedy, madcap capers, and English wit.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 30 November 2011.

Happy Feet Two (2011)

The son of Mumbles the dancing penguin saves the day once more when the colony is threatened by another climate change disaster.

While being a sequel, it's not entirely predictable and manages to subvert the formula. Better yet, it's less shrill and hectoring about ecology than the first film.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 16 November 2011.

Legendary Amazons (杨门女将之军令如山) (2011)

The misfortunes of the military Yang family in the Sung dynasty and its glorious end has been the stuff of legend.

In this adaptation, it's a source of unintended comedy thanks to ridiculous casting, haphazard storytelling, perfunctory performances, and copious yet cartoonish CGI.

If you're into mediaeval versions of "Women keep getting lost; don't let them drive!" jokes, this is a film for you. Otherwise, stay away.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 16 November 2011.

The Rum Diary (2011)

This film may be about the misadventures of an expat abroad, but it's really about the roots of gonzo journalism and the making of Hunter S Thompson.

It provides a glimpse in the heady excesses and rampant plundering of the poor by the rich that provoked Thompson into a life-long rage, fear and loathing of civilised society.

Watch this for: Johnny Depp misbehaving on screen, a psychedelic mood piece, and a depiction of an innocent rampaging capitalism whose period seems to be coming to an end, post 2007.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 9 November 2011.

The Adventures of Tintin

Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones series owe a literary debt to Herge, and it's only fitting that he direct this adaptation just like an Indy Jones movie.

So: The Secret of the Unicorn, The Crab with the Golden Claws, and Red Rackham’s Treasure are bound together in one film by Spielberg’s action-adventure movie sensibilities.

The film showcases Herge’s art style and his interests in action adventure, mystery, and foreign adventure – though sadly Herge's political and social satire is missing.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 9 November 2011.

11-11-11

This moody Spanish horror pays tribute to the old masters of the genre.

Without giving too much of the plot away, it’s a mixture of The Number 23 and John Carpenter’s very harrowing The Prince of Darkness, combining the apocalypse with occult rituals, numerology, and modern day scares.

From one of the directors of the Saw franchise, this is surprisingly coherent, full of mythological flavour, and actually frightening.

Read my full review on Fridae, first published on 9 November 2011.

The Ides of March (2011)

Not quite a standard political thriller, the key protagonist (and the one in danger of falling from grace) isn't the candidate for POTUS but his idealistic, fresh-faced campaign manager.

It's like a murder mystery in reverse: you'll be guessing just what will trip him into the Dark Side.

It's a well-written drama about a political coming of age and loss of innocence.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 2 November 2011.

Sleepwalker (梦游) (2011)

The lesson learnt here is: Forget about making horror films in China. They're banned anyway.

One Pang Brother's attempt to make a horror film that won't be banned in China. Instead, they end up making a half-assed psychological thriller that's equally parts half-assed crime thriller and half-assed horror.

It doesn't help that he's a painfully limited horror director in the first place. You can skip this without prejudice.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 2 November 2011.

Tower Heist (2011)

The concierge staff at Trump Plaza plan a heist on one of its more illustrious residents. Sadly it's not Donald Trump though he was slated to play the patsy

Sometimes being stuck in production hell is good for a film. Case in point: Tower Heist, which got delayed so much, the financial crisis, the Great Recession, and Occupy Wall Street happened.

Everything in this heist movie becomes funnier and edgier viewing it through the current social and economic climate in America.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 2 November 2011.