The only way one adult can enjoy this movie is to dumb down a little so that the logic-less storyline will not frustrate. Yes, the normal shutting-down of the brain is not enough here, otherwise a lot (and I do mean a lot) of questions will arise.

The saddest part was the inclusion of Elizabeth Banks in the line-up. Banks, after her rave reviews in Definitely, Maybe, definitely did not need something as sad as this in her repertoire.

And as for the other familiar faces, their talents were wasted. Sure they managed to bring out the occasional chuckle; but with an overall material this bad, so what?

But this movie was all about showing off Eddie Murphy as “Dave”. But why does Murphy keep going for roles like these. He’s not hungry for work. He’s not a has-been. Is it passion? For this?

There should be a clause for this movie saying “strictly for children”. Now that would achieve a different rating.

Rating: 3 / 10

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From the opening monologue by Costner to the first appearance shortly after by William Hurt, that took me right into the movie with gripping force. Nothing spectacular really, but they have a presence that commanded your attention. And as the story unfolds, Hurt’s acting became more and more fun to watch as he let the evil loose.

There’s a little bit of everything in this movie. Humour, action, gore, thriller, suspense. The humour came mostly from Dane Cook who I was surprised to see in this thriller.  But it wasn’t crazy humour, it was carefully controlled. And the action parts came mostly from Demi Moore who could still command screen presence.

There were a few more subplots than expected, and a couple of times it felt like the movie was going all over the place; but in the end everything tied up nicely together. And the ending did not disappoint.

Rating: 7 / 10

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Maria Bello replacing Weisz for the role could be blame for her part. It’s as if she didn’t study the role before coming in and did a 180 on the character, alienating the audience who have followed the franchise from the start. She tried too hard to be cute and to shine on the screen but you can see she’s putting in a lot of effort.

Director Rob Cohen shouldn’t be blame totally for the failure. The story by long-time collaborators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar didn’t get this franchise at all. It’s really fine if they wanted it to be set in China together with the Olympics but let’s be realistic even in this fantastical story, there are no mummies in the Chinese culture. Yet the word has been loosely inserted whenever possible, almost as if they were trying to justify the title of the movie.

The obligatory love story was even more hideous than the one in Forbidden Kingdom. It came out of nowhere with forced chemistry and the actors failed miserably trying to commit to that counterfeit chemistry.

The use of Chinese in the movie was very inconsistent. Michelle Yeoh’s character should not understand English as she’s been hiding in the Himalayas with… yetis. And while summoning the dead, again the English was used to recite an enchantment which was ridiculous as those dead were buried thousands of years ago – why would they rise to a language they didn’t comprehend?

The action and escapades were supposed to thrill the audience, but they did not. There was a hollow feeling while watching the story fly by at light speed. The audience were never given the chance to relate to any of the characters in the story. The threat of the Emperor were never felt throughout the whole movie even though the characters were rushing to stop him. It’s like fishing on calm waters.

At one point, the Emperor with all the powers he possessed, decided to tear off his face and throw at his assailants, the puny humans who he could fire-breathe to death. Go figure.

Jet Li for the second time this summer has debased himself for light and useless entertainment that will do nothing for his Hollywood career. It’s a sad, sad thing to witness.

And it’s been so many years, shouldn’t Rick O’Connell get a different haircut by now?

Rating: 3 / 10

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There was almost none other than that psychic priest played by Billy Connolly. The whole thing was going nowhere. There weren’t any suspense, spooks or mystics. Fox Mulder was running around all over the place and yet he didn’t do very much. Dana Scully was caught up in her own “segment” trying to cure a patient of hers which didn’t lead to anywhere or anything. It’s almost as if they wrote that in for her just so she could be in the movie.

And the dramatic entrance of Mulder was almost laughable. That homeless beard he had on showed nothing dramatic other than being reclused and he immediately shaved it off after almost very immediately accepted the FBI’s plea for help; discounting whatever it was that they have done to him.

The writers were to blame for this, which was also the part of the director’s. The story didn’t gel properly, the kidnappers’ story didn’t have enough convictions, and Duchovny’s deadpan one-liners felt like they belonged to the nineties. In the end, it felt like watching a CSI movie rather than the X Files.

Director Chris Carter should have made this a bigger X File movie with more paranormal activities, rather than something as normal as this which just didn’t justify the “X File” title.

Two ways this effort could have turned out better. 1) As a two-parter episode on TV, or better yet, shorten it to a 40-minute episode and it could turn out more exciting, or 2) Change the names and the title of the movie and release as a different movie entirely without the expectations that comes with an “X File”.

Rating: 4 / 10

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Somewhat complicated even, during the first half, but everything tied together nicely in the end. It wasn’t mindblowing though it probably was worked towards that effort, but still a very enjoyable experience with a well-rounded cast.

One complaint I have would be the scene when police was standing outside the vault while the heist was taking place inside, there should have been more panic with the robbers making their getaways. Instead, they just stood there and listened. Not very realistic but just a minor complaint.

Rating: 6 / 10

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The story itself looks at the realistic view of an American family living apart and the predicament when the parent got old and sick. It’s about three characters in one small period where their lives clashed with each other after being apart for so long.

There’s more drama than humour in it, but the humourous parts were really funny. And with the wonderful performances by Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Philip Bosco, their characters and onscreen charisma made the movie quite an enjoyable watch.

However, the storyline wasn’t as interesting or clever enough to be as entertaining as other indie movies like say, Juno, as some parts were a bit too slow for my taste.

Rating: 6 / 10

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The premise of the movie was good: a parody of all those musical biopics, with a closer resemblance to Johnny Cash’s Walk The Line. The songs were incredibly entertaining and there’s a story there that when it wasn’t outrageous, it was pleasant.

However, the second half was a bit slower as the story got a little serious and didn’t really work with the parody theme. The story ultimately was nothing original from all the biopics out already and that’s where the second half really failed.

The movie would have done better if it wasn’t as over the top or stupid. Tolerable and sometimes even charming to a certain degree but a man separated into two from the waist, that’s just too much.

John C. Reilly however performed great with a surprising singing voice that I never knew he had. He probably sang everything live as well.

Rating: 4 / 10

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First the good. The cinematography and art direction warranted the title of the most expensive Chinese movie ever made. There was one shot where a white dove flew from Red Cliff across the water and eventually reaching the enemies’ ships and I’m sure that shot itself could have financed another smaller movie.

The adapted screenplay had enough to properly tell the story without the feeling of rushed, unlike the previous Andy Lau’s Resurrection of the Dragon. John Woo took his time with characterisation; howevever, some characters still felt loose. And this could be because of the deprived 30 minutes or John Woo mistakenly felt that these are iconic characters and need no further characterisation.

And that affected the acting. Main characters like Kaneshiro’s Zhu Ge Liang, Zhang Feng Yi’s Cao Cao and Tony Leung’s Zhao Yu felt “incomplete”. Their emotional performances felt like they were without appropriate depth for a character that has lived through many wars. And I don’t understand why Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro had to be dubbed over. Both their Mandarin should be good enough, with practice they shouldn’t need to be dubbed. That was also distracting.

I’ve been told reliably that Lin Chiling’s scenes were some of the deleted scenes so that will be left for another day. Zhao Wei and Chang Chen’s performances were limited but instead felt more “complete”.

But Chang Chen had a scene hunting a tiger, and I’m very surprised that with such a huge budget they couldn’t have Chang and the tiger together in the same frame. That stuck out irritatingly and once again showed the limited capacity of a Chinese movie.

And while the aforementioned dove flying with the camera was spectacular, the beginning of the sequence where Zhu Ge Liang seemed to be talking to the dove before setting it off, and the end of that sequence never tied back together. It not only lost me completely but again, showed the inconsistency of Chinese movie-making, where effects are favoured so much more over storytelling.

There were a lot of corny bits as well. Something I wasn’t expecting from a seasoned director like Woo. Most noticeably when music was incorporated in to indicate a change in tone, the transition was unfortunately too apparent.

There was a scene when the alliance used reflective shields to blind their enemies, if you counted the number of times Woo showed the similar scenes over and over, there were probably ten times and after the first few, it just felt overly done.

So overall, I have to say I very much disagree with Woo’s direction in this one. I was also missing his proficiency in action scenes. But this is a piece of history story that should not be missed.

Rating: 6 / 10

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A large part of that is thanks to the superb writing by the Nolan brothers. A story filled with suspense, twists and turns that drove the movie along with incredible speeds; and never compromising the flow of the storyline. It’s one movie that has delivered way beyond all expectations.

Coupled the writing with great performances by Heath Ledger as well as Aaron Eckhart, the whole movie is almost without flaw.

Even without that make-up, there is no trace of Heath Ledger found in The Joker. Ledger has committed fully and immersed himself completely into bringing a new life to The Joker. Even his voice was changed and The Joker never sounded this good nor scary. Just a simple lick of his stitched-up mouth with a resounding click sent shivers down my spine. The Joker didn’t even look human at some point, but just evil in its purest sense.

Aaron Eckhart portrayed Harvey Dent as such a likeable guy that grabbed my attention. And even when we know he will become Two-Face one day, I believed in him and that he was the saviour of Gotham City; which he was made out to be.

Katie Holmes made a wise decision in getting herself out of this project as she was just wrong for the part previously. And Maggie Gyllenhaal was an immediate improvement. However, her character Rachel Dawes was still missing that likeability since Batman Begins. The Nolan brothers, perhaps felt the same way, decided to write her in such a way this time round. I couldn’t agree more with their decision.

This movie however is not without flaw, or at least from storytelling point of view. I for one dislike how Batman, who isn’t David Copperfield, could appear and disappear, or why he felt the need to. Nevermind the roof tops but what about a bank vault or even the interrogating room down in the police headquarters? He can’t fly. He can’t turn invisible. He can’t shrink. How can no one notice him arrive, walk through an entrance (any entrance because he certainly didn’t drill a hole in the wall or climb down the chimney), walk down narrow corridors and perhaps down at least a level, and end up inside a bank vault or a locked interrogating room. That, although trivial in a Batman story, was just ridiculously silly.

And also how Joker managed to blow up a hospital of that size by planting bombs within such a short period of time was a bit unrealistic.

That being said, it was still one of the greatest movies I’ve ever watched. And I haven’t felt such a sense of urgency since Superman II. This was one of those rare times when I thought the superhero might actually lose the battle. And in many ways, he did.

Christopher Nolan has done nothing wrong so far.

Rating: 9 / 10

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There were only a couple of things on their list that were truly crazy, and those were the ones that would make you smile. The other “smaller” items on the list were just there to move the story along which really was about the drama and the sentimentality of the story.

 

But watching the two talented old farts, they managed to charm their way from beginning to end with their camaraderie. While this was far from their finest performances, they had enough character to build on, they took turns narrating, and the story had a good flow right till the very end. It was entertaining enough.

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