Rush Hour 3

I liked Rush Hour 1 and 2. I thought by this time, the Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker tandem would wore off and they wouldn't be as funny anymore, but I was wrong because I found myself laughing all throughout the film. Although the story was predictable, it wouldn't hurt to just sit down and enjoy the film for what it is - 1 and a half hour of entertainment.

Whale Rider

"One young girl dared to confront the past, change the present and determine the future."

If you want to learn more about NZ culture, particularly Maori culture, I recommend you watch this film. It gives you a glimpse of Maori society here in NZ. The film is low-budget without all the Hollywood fru fru and even though it is a simple story, it is very well told and the actors gave compelling performances especially Keisha Castle-Hughes who played Pai, who Darwin say has a very strong stage presence.

Basically, the film is about a young girl who has to fulfill her destiny and in the process, fight her grandfather and a thousand years of tradition to fulfill it.

My only gripe about this film is that it would have been better if there were English subtitles on the Maori chants/songs so people could have a better understanding on what they mean. But overall, it was a moving and beautiful film. The ending was also... not quite what you expect I guess.

The film was released in 2002 and has been nominated and won lots of awards.

Watch the trailer:

Knocked Up

Believe the hype. It's one of the funniest films this year!! The characters are so real, you can relate to them. The prosthetics is also good. Gone are the days when actresses who played pregnant women will do so by putting a pillow under their dress. With the resources we have today, it can get real as much as we want it to be. I also loved the credits at the end of the film. Who doesn't love baby pictures? Awww.

One thing I find it hard to understand about men in general (which was also shown in this film) is them wanting to have their "sanity" time. I remember Dar and I had this talk before about his "sanity" thing. Geeez. All of us need time to get away from it all sometimes.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)

I was smiling when I entered the cinema about to watch the 5th installment to the Harry Potter series, but left not smiling anymore. I am disappointed!!! I am a big fan and I have read all the books and seen all the movies and this is the worst of them all! There were so many things wrong and missing!! It's like only half of the book! I know the book is also the longest in the Harry Potter series but surely there is a way that they could have put it in the big screen without cutting chunks of the story/characters!!

Jet Li's Fearless

Jet Li's final martial arts film. I'm gonna miss his kung fu moves :c

But this film doesn't show him getting old. Physically, he can still kick it and do all that martial arts moves. For me, it's a different Jet Li in this film. Love it!!

Hoodwinked

On the DVD cover it said: "The funniest animated movie since 'Shrek'!". Hmmmm... I don't know about that. It's cute and funny at the start, but take any story and re-tell it quite a number of times (4) and it gets... boring??!! Story can be predictable and animation could have been better, but the voice talents were good though (gotta love Anne Hathaway).

300 (the movie)

When the movie was released, I had no idea what the hype was about. I saw bits of the trailer and I thought that the movie was in 3D (or something) because of the color and the cast/men (the body too good to be true heh). I didn't watched the movie even though Darwin insisted before that I should see it. Now that Dar is here with me, he won't let it pass that I didn't watched 300 so he downloaded a copy of the movie and finally, I was able to watch 300.

My verdict: the storytelling, treatment, effects, and the men (abs, abs, abs) were all great!! I love it!!

Shrek the Third

After a month (or two?) it was released, we finally saw this movie. Wasn't really too excited to see the third installment to Shrek since I find Shrek 2 quite boring. I don't know if it's the movie (boring again?) or just me really tired, but I slept on the first quarter of the movie. Shrek the Third was ok (I still laughed on some parts of the movie), but of course Shrek 1 is still the best.

I also found out (in Wiki) that there's gonna be another Shrek movie. Shrek Ever After and Shrek the Halls (TV Christmas special). Plus the Puss in Boots spin-offs. I'm kinda getting bored with Shrek heh but Puss in Boots sound quite promising.