Pinoy Movie Club: 2019

Showing posts with label 2019. Show all posts

When one is trapped in one abusive domestic violent marriage, one will grab the first escape she's dealt with. Such is the case with Anna Poliatova (played by Sasha Luss). She accepts an offer with the KGB and trained hard for it. As part of her deal, she worked under Olga (played by Helen Mirren) for five years. She hopes that after those years she will be able to be free and can do whatever she wants. Lo and behold this wasn't true. She was trapped already in a bad marriage, yet now she's trapped again with the KGB. Her only way out of the KGB was death.

She continued to work with the KGB as an undercover playing a fashion model in Paris. During her spare time she conducts mission orders given to her by her handler Olga. She was good at it until she was discovered by the CIA wherein she was asked to be an undercover agent. Agent Miller (played by Cillian Murphy) promised her freedom once they do a mission undermining the KGB.

In the end, she was able to maneuver herself from the clutches of the KGB and CIA.

Watching the film was like watching Leon the Professional. A movie about an assassin in New York and this one was similar in its action scenes and feel. It's no wonder they are the same, they have the same director in Luc Besson. Him being one of our great directors of all time.

We love the actors who are in this movie, who doesn't love Luke Evans, Cillian Murphy and Helen Mirren backing up Sasha Luss? A powehouse cast like that won't make this film bad whatever angle you look at it.

Even being a real life model, Sasha Luss really pulled a big one here in Anna. She's like a woman John Wick, great with a gun, with hand to hand combat. We like her as Anna, from the action to the emotional scenes, we can't get enough of her being a great actress who can make us smile, cry and be amazed at the same time.

The supporting cast may not have a lot of screen time, the trio of Evans, Murphy and Mirren was noticeable enough that it gives credence to the movie in total. They complete Anna's story in the movie and it was difficult to find fault in this entertaining movie. Character development from start was great to establish Anna's beginnings, then the story weave of her being a spy turned double agent was likewise given a nice touch. The only thing we can complain is the number of backstories we had to contend with. It's something we didn't find in other Besson's films yet we find them a lot in Anna.

If you are like us who are fascinated with Korean dramas, then you will like the back stories. Very not Besson if you ask us but we can forgive him if there were a few but here we found a lot and it sometimes leaves us with a notion that there might more. Sadly the movie ended and were still left hanging if there would be. LOL.

Anyway, the movie is a great watch and lucky for you its now being aired on Netflix and its trending even after a month of release.

And then comes Anna (2019)

After Marvel established the MCU decades earlier, now DC Comics ramps up their offerings to solidify the DC Universe. After the success of Wonder Woman, Deadpool and Aquaman, they released another super hero in Shazam.

Movie starts off with a youthful Thaddeus Sivana in a car with his dad and brother when suddenly he gets transported to the Rock of Eternity. The ancient Shazam was searching for a new champion so he was thinking Thaddeus was someone with a pure heart but he failed when he was tested and he was returned to the car right away. Thaddeus return resulted to a car accident where his dad was injured and became a cripple.

Fast forward to the present times, another teenager Billy Batson (played by Asher Angel) comes into view. A troubled teenager, he is a regular in and out of foster homes as he tries to search for her birth mother. After a few families, he is now fostered in the home of Victor and Rosa Vasquez (played by Cooper Andrews and Marta Milans respectively) who has 5 other foster children. Even with the Vasquez love, Billy continued to be alone and would not want to have anything to do with the Vasquez home.

During this time, an adult Thaddeus Sivana (now played by Mark Strong) finally made his way back to the Rock of Eternity and was able to get the Eye of Sin. He won over the ancient wizard and used this power to kill his dad and his brother along with the board of directors of Sivana Industies.

After a few scenes in school and at home, we find him running away from bullies and hides away in the subway when it was now his time to be transported to the Rock of Eternity. Finally the ancient wizard found his champion in Billy and he transferred his powers to him via Billy shouting the name "Shazam" while holding the magic staff. The ancient wizard turned to dust and Billy now Shazam, went back home as Shazam and sought the help of his foster brother, Freddy Freeman (played by Jack Dylan Grazer) who knows about superhero stuff. The latter helps him discover his powers until Thaddeus confronts him Shazam. A fight ensued and Shazam being inexperienced, he barely escaped Thaddeus' wrath, but the latter was able to guess his true identity. Thaddeus then kidnaps the other foster children hoping that Billy would rescue them which he did.

When Billy came as Shazam, he knew he can't fight all the seven sins, and remembering the last words of the ancient wizard, he shares the power to his foster brother and sisters. Now that he has levelled the playing field, he was able to confront Thaddeus alone while his brothers and sisters took care of the other sins. In the end, Shazam was able to outwit the seven sins and got the Eye of Sin from Thaddeus.

The movie for us was quirky and funny as they intended it to be. We thought they followed the formula for Deadpool complete with funny antics and lines except for the R-18 jokes and graphic representations. Consider this as mellowed down or GP rated Deadpool aimed for the younger crowd. We like Zachary Levi as Shazam and boy he is funny. He really was a good pick to play the title role while the foster parents were a perfect fit. The other foster kids gave decent performances in the minimal screen times they were given.

Storywise, as an origin story, it wasn't boring and slow. They told the story in such a simple and fast pace that we didn't miss or skipped a beat as to how he became Shazam. There might be more to the story which was "skipped" but we didn't mind it all, as long as we know where he was coming from, its okay with us. The origin and character development of the anti hero Thaddeus Sivana was similar with that of Billy Batson but we find him being resentful and wants to return to the Rock of Eternity enough motivation to be bad.

The pacing of the story was nice and it we liked the roller coaster type of story telling where you find some parts slow and then picks up the pace again. What diminish our interest is the build up of some scenes. Comedy situations were fine, but sometimes we are confused when the scenes turn to drama of sorts. We were expecting a scene to be funny then it becomes serious and then vice versa. These scenes we mentioned are just subtle so if you are not much into this film, you will never notice them. You will still be entertained by this movie. Shazam is a good super hero movie and kudos to the DCU for striking a home run with this. We just hope they can mirror this success along with that of Wonder Woman, Deadpool and Aquaman to their Batman, Superman and Justice League franchises.

Since this is still new, you can buy the DVD or Blue-ray to watch this.

I'd like to buy some of your finest beer please - Shazam (2019)

We love the early X-Men films and somehow our appreciation to it goes down every time we watch the newer movies (except for Logan) and this one took us to the lowest of the lows.

Even with a superb cast thrown herein, they couldn't have possibly resurrect the story. Caught between the merging of the Disney owned MCU and 20th Century Fox, this movie somehow lost it's way. We all know that the split in the characters has been with us with Marvel selling some its characters to 20th Century Fox. Without the MCU, we were happy seeing the X-Men and Spiderman movies only to find it as rubbish when MCU came along and introduced the very first Iron Man. There is a whole new world of story telling and 20th Century Fox was left in the dust. Everything went downhill from hereon.

Going back to this movie, the first scene was set in 1975 with the young Jean Grey was travelling with her parents and got into a car accident leaving her as an orphan. It was during this time that Professor Xavier brought her to his school. Fast forward to 1992, the X-Men were asked to rescue the astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor. In the process of the rescue, Jean Grey was struck by a solar flare like energy, which she absorbs. This energy multiplied her powers and unsuspectingly unlocks the memories which were repressed by Professor Xavier. The professor blocked the memories for her to be shielded from the childhood trauma of losing her parents. With this memory unleashed, all those trauma flooded right all in, filling her with all that anger and pain. With her new powers she found out that her father was alive and well. She went to her hometown and confronted her father, who gave her up fearing for her powers. She also learned that she was responsible for her mother's death. The X-Men arrived to bring her back to her home but she ended up injuring Quicksilver and killing Mystique before fleeing again.

She went to seek help from Magneto but with what she did to the US Military tasked to arrest her, he denied her request and he asked her to leave instead. She then meets with Vuk, the leader of aliens who landed on earth, who explained to her that the energy that she absorbed was the same cosmic force that wiped out Vuk's home planet long ago. The energy was focusing on Jean Grey's power all along Vuk said.

Hank McCoy now allied with Magneto, comes after Jean Grey. They succumb to her powers until Professor Xavier convinced her to read his memories, allowing her true self to take over. Feeling guilty she asked Vuk to take the power from her, but by doing so would kill her. Before Vuk could absorb all this power, Professor Xavier prevented this and all of them were captured by the US government troops. They were then under power inhibiting collars and placed on a train headed to a containment facility.

En-route, the train was attacked by Vuk and her cohorts with Jean Grey as their mission. Seeing that the US government troops were no match to this shape shifting aliens, they released the X-Men to even the odds. With Professor Xavier's help, Jean Grey was able to control her new found powers and saves everyone against Vuk. Jean Grey finally retakes the powers she gave to Vuk and she killed Vuk in the end. Jean Grey then vanished in an energy explosion in the form of a phoenix.

Events thereafter, Xavier's School was renamed after Jean Grey and Hank became its first dean. Professor Xavier is retired now and settled in Paris with Magneto, and while starting to play a game a chess, a flaming phoenix appears in the sky.

Admittedly it was difficult for us to review this film. We can't help to relate this one with the third X-men film, the Last Stand. There we find Jean Grey unleashing the Phoenix from within her. We wonder if this Phoenix was the same Phoenix from this movie. As we don't have that answer for you, we proceed to explain it by what 20th Century Fox did with X-Men: Days of future's past. This time travel movie turned the already confusing X-Men timeline into a fritz. We can't understand the X-men movies after that flick.

Are we in a parallel time line as a result? What happened to the story line of the movies prior? Is it still there or they are not there anymore? Do we have to accept this movie as it is or simply drop it and wait for how the MCU would handle the reboot? Will the story line be rewritten again so that they will be introduced to the MCU Phase 4? We felt that his movie, along with that of Fanstastic Four suffered a let's just do a movie and don't care how will MCU handle it thereafter. Both movies are dismal failures in story line in our books and we suggest don't go through them like we did. Stay away from this movies and simply wait for the MCU certified movies about them instead.

They're right to fear me - X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019)

This movie was a continuation of their first after a decade in their timeline. They have since then managed to stay alive by knowing the type of zombies and how to handle each one. They have also set up a home in the White House and Columbus (played by Jesse Eisenberg) proposed to Wichita (played by Emma Stone) while Tallahassee (played by Woody Harrelson) acts as if he is their surrogate father (which he denies).

Apocalypse have a different effect on people and it is where this movie starts off with. Wichita's younger sister, Little Rock (played by Abigail Breslin) is beginning to look for young people her age. She feels she can't relate anymore with the group and would like to move on. Wichita likewise feels too much attached to Columbus that she needed a break somehow. These feelings grew on them that they finally left Columbus and Tallahassee. This left Columbus heartbroken.

A month after being left behind, Columbus was moping with Tallahassee when he found another survivor, Madison (played by Zoey Deutch). Tallahassee immediately dislikes Madison but somehow Columbus invited her back to the White House. Deprived of sex for too long, Madison had one with Columbus. That same night, Columbus and Tallahassee found Wichita replenishing guns and ammo in the garage. She told them that Little Rock also left her for another survivor, Berkeley (played by Avan Jogia) going to Graceland.

This revelation set off a road trip by the group with Madison in tow. They almost caught up with her in a motel owned by Nevada (played by Rosario Dawson) when they saw two cooky characters in Albaqurque (played by Luke Wilson) and Flagstaff (played by Thomas Middleditch). This duo mirrors our lead tandem of Tallahassee and Columbus which made it creepy as per Wichita.

Eventually that new duo died just a few minutes of their introduction and the group (except for Nevada) sets forth to find Little Rock who went to Babylon. A place where its safe from them zombies yet they don't use violence. It was just said to be a place of high walls thus the zombies can't reach them.

Eventually the group caught up with Little Rock but she wasn't thrilled seeing them. In Babylon she's happy to mingle with people of same age as her. Columbus and Wichita decided to stay with Little Rock in Babylon and Tallahassee went on his way. As he was leaving, he met the new type of zombies on their way to Babylon.

He soon found out why these were going to Babylon, in the skies above Babylon, fireworks were exploding. Tallahassee went back to Babylon to warn its residents only to find out that there were no more guns there. Left with their wits, they fought the zombies and eventually they were able to defend Babylon.

Simply that place is not for them so they left for another adventure. Tallahassee with Nevada, Columbus and Wichita, and Little Rock did a road trip at the end of the movie.

The whole movie has a thin story if you take it as a zombie movie, which in fact it wasn't. Its a story of finding love amidst all the chaos or uncertainty. Columbus' desire of marriage was not the same with Wichita thus a long story can be found here. Little Rock also desired to find love among her peers, she took a journey that took her to Babylon, where she thought she could find it. Even Tallahassee who was skeptical about love finally found one in the end. So in the end, its a love story all the way, just with zombies running around and getting killed.

We really appreciated how the group blended well together in their first movie thus we find them again with the same chemistry here in Double Tap. Although the movie is dragging in most parts, its livened up by adding new characters with Madison (a horny dumb blonde), Berkeley (a pacifist and wannabee song writer), Nevada (Tallahassee's love interest here), Albuquerque (a mirror of Tallahassee) and Flagstaff (a mirror of Columbus). Although most of the new characters either died off or simply left in Babylon, we were disappointed that we won't see them in the next sequel if there was one. These characters have a certain quirks that endeared us to them. We hope that new colorful characters would pop up in the next one.

We also like the script and dialogues as they were nicely written. Pacing was sadly a bit slow like the homer zombies in the film but its forgivable when the scenes slightly pick up speed. We are not keen on zombie movies, but seldom there are those which we like and this is one of them.

Currently this is being shown on Netflix so queue this one up on one of your quarantine nights.

Time to nut up or shut up - Zombieland Double Tap (2019)

Timeless Romance or Timeless Love is a story of 4 women who transcends through time, just to win 4 men that got away. All their souls were trapped in stones that eventually was made into a necklace and comes upon our hapless heroine in Qin Duyi in the modern times.

These spirits use Duyi's body to go after the men that will hopefully move them to the afterlife. Being 4 souls, they are after 4 men obviously. So each of these 4 souls have to to share Duyi's body confusing the men. To think that even Duyi has her own man to capture as well.

The movie is more on the silly side rather than on the romance side as we keep seeing these souls going in and out of our main character indiscriminately. We pity the girl for being overly used by these souls and of how the men would react knowing in the end that they were after just one woman with multiple personalities.

There were funny moments here of course but we simply can't accept the fact the term "used and abused" is constantly being seen with out heroine. The four souls had great performances however the lead actor playing Duyi is somehow left out in our point of view. It's difficult acting alone, and with additional 4 more characters? I think that was a stretch for her.

There were still other things to discuss but we like to leave it at that since the ending would just make our review moot and academic. If you want fish out of water antics and confused men looks, then watch this one. Per write ups, its being shown on Amazon Prime but we watched this in YouTube instead.

Simply click on the thumbnail below.

Does transcend in time? - Timeless Love / Romance (2019)

What happens when a nerdy engineering student meets a girl? Nothing right? They are not known to be adept in looking for girls much less getting one. This is how our nerd Hwi-So (played by Ji Il-Joo) spends his days at the campus. Hanging out with his student buddies, just focusing on their gadgets. In comes Hye-Jin (played by Lee Elijah) a wheelchair bonded archer who had a defective motorized wheelchair. He fixed the chair, being an engineering whiz, and she being just a girl.

Story revolves around the two both of whom are carrying emotional baggages that they thought would be blocking their relationship. In the end however they learned to push through with the same for the sake of their love.

If you noticed we made a short plot synopsis of the film. The reason? The movie is plain and simple. Boy meets girl, girl meets boy, they like each other, they don't tell they love each other, they just want to be with each other, still they don't tell they love each other, parent of the girl doesn't like the boy, the boy leaves girl, girl cries, boy realizes he loves her, boy goes to the girl, girl appreciates and gets that national team member in archery.

Don't get the wrong idea that we didn't like the movie. In as much as there we loopholes the size of blackholes, we like the film. We are just hopeless romantics and they (Ji Il-Joo and Lee Elijah) simply looked good together. Even without speaking their lines, their smiles alone give us goosebumps and we can feel that they liked each other. Other characters were stereotyped but we liked them just the same.

Don't look for a meaty content and story telling as this is not that kind of a film. Back stories were (maybe) not that important to the plot anyway and we think it could have been omitted. What's important is how the two leads look good together.

Plot is easy to follow, not much twist, many feel good moments, in fact maybe too much, but still we like to see both of them together on screen. The film is also light so not much heavy lifting in the field of drama, but they do have some sad moments. Its like them trying to win you over with laughter, sadness, anger perhaps, and thank God there were no signing. So we will recommend this film on your romcom night. Its not Sleepless in Seattle nor You've got Mail, but it will drive you almost there.

Lucky for you its available on YouTube for free!!!!

Wheeling in the love - My Bossy Girl (2019)

We really can't get enough of Donnie Yen and he's here again reprising his role as Master Ip Man. This is the last of the franchise (I hope not) and we can't miss this one for the world.

After the death of his wife, he was diagnosed to have cancer due to his excessive smoking. Meanwhile his rebellious son got into another fight and got expelled from school. This made Ip Man decide to send his son to the United States. So he went to San Francisco look for a school for his son. In the process of he needs the help of the Chinese Benevolent Association or CBA. He needs a letter of recommendation from its head Master Wan. CBA has been at odds with a student of Ip Man, Bruce Lee, so unless he helps the CBA in controlling Lee, he won't get that letter from CBA.

Ip Man tried talking to a principal to get his son enrolled when he met with Master Wan's daughter Yonah. He saved her from being bullied in school and he even accompanied him to her house. He met with Master Wan and was accused of using his daughter Yohan so he can get that letter. Master Wan challenges Ip Man to a duel only to be interrupted by an earthquake. Master Wan promises to continue their duel after the mid-autumn festival. Ip Man told him not to continue as he merely accompanied Yonah home just to be safe.

On another part of the story, the girl who bullied Yonah, reported to her parents, her father is an officer of the Immigration Service. In retaliation, this officer then proceeded to arrest Master Wan with trumped up charges of the CBA harboring illegal immigrants.

While he was being arrested, a Karate instructor with the United States Marines went down to disrupt the mid autumn festival by challenging the Kung Fu Masters present. After defeating almost everyone, Ip Man interceded and won over the over zealous instructor.

Afterwards Ip Man and Yonah learned that Master Wan was in the office of the Immigration Service. They wanted to see him but was not able to. They were warned by a student of Bruce Lee who worked in the Immigration Service to inform the CBA that like Master Wan, they will all be arrested. Before the officers could flee, they were beaten by a US Marine Sargeant Geddes (played by Scott Adkins) to proved that Karate is very much superior than Chinese Kung Fu.

Geddes tirades against Chinese Kung Fu didn't end there, thinking that Master Wan defeated the Karate instructer earlier, he proceeded to look for him. He took Master Wan from the custody of the Immigration Service and brought him to their barracks for a duel in front of the recruits. Geddes won over Master Wan almost killing him. During this time, Ip Man helped bring the CBA officers to Bruce Lee's studio there they were informed that Master Wan was taken to a hospital.

Ip Man angered, he asked to be brought to Geddes whom he defeated. Master Wan then prepared that recommendation letter to Ip Man, He had decided then that he won't be bringing his son to the United States but instead he will teach his son Wing Chun.

Ip died in 1972 of head and throat cancer and Bruce Lee came to pay his respects to his teacher. In the end, the US Marines finally accepted Chinese Kung Fu as one their instructions for combat training.

After watching the other Ip Man films (which we loved) this finale is truly different. This was the only martial arts film that we cried not once but twice. Unlike the other films that showed Chinese Kung Fu being ridiculed and eventually fought back to earn its credibility (this film has the same premise) this one showed the discrimination of Chinese in the United States. What made us emotional in this film is the inclusion of Ip Man and his son's rocky relationship.

There were a lot of things to chew here but it was tastefully and wonderfully done. It still had that martial arts appeal to it yet it showed family emotions. It took Ip to realize his son's passion after seeing Yonah's experience with his father Master Wan. He later realized this in the end and this made our eyes bring down tears to our cheeks.

Donnie Yen truly is the Ip Man and he owned the role. We saw Yen in the iconic role for so many times yet we don't get tired watching him. So it was just befitting that he played the role till the death of Ip Man.

Because the movie tackled a lot of things most of the characters were left with short or inadequate character development. There were some scenes that bewildered us but we had to let it go as we don't expect much from a martial arts movie. So we were surprised to find a father/son and father/daughter emotional entanglements herein.

If you have watched all or some of the Ip Man films, this one is a great ending to it all.

Farewell - Ip Man The Finale (2019)

Toy Story 4

"When a new toy called "Forky" joins Woody and the gang, a road trip alongside old and new friends reveals how big the world can be for a toy." - IMDB

Who wouldn't like to see Woody and the gang again? After they made us cry in the last movie, we are excited to know what they have in store for us.

John Wick Chapter 3
He is back for more action and mayhem. He is actually on the run now since he was made excommunicado. With lots of money on his head, expect all the assassins to go after that handsome head of his. As he made a threat to all who would come after him, "I will kill them all" was his last line in Chapter 2.

Shazam
"We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson's case, by shouting out one word - SHAZAM! - this streetwise 14-year-old foster kid can turn into the adult superhero Shazam." - IMDB

We like shouting Shazam so we are expected to line up in the theatres for this. Plus the fact that the trailer for this already came out and we also liked that. We hope that DC will make a great movie out of this great material. They are playing catch up with Marvel and we have high hopes with this one.

Once upon a time in hollywood
"A faded TV actor and his stunt double embark on an odyssey to make a name for themselves in the film industry during the Helter Skelter reign of terror in 1969 Los Angeles." - IMDB

For us, its just the name - Tarantino.

Star Wars Episode IX

After watching the Disney made Episodes VII, VIII, we would like to know how it ends. Finally this year, we will get to see the final of this trilogy.

Joker
"A failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and becomes a psychopathic murderer." - IMDB

We have a lot of Joker actors since we started watching Batman films. This time however we would like to see Joaquin Phoenix's own version of the greatest villain Batman has faced. To think Jay Leto also has his Joker, this would be an interesting watch in 2019.

Avengers Endgame
As we have been entertained by Marvel Studios for a decade now, we would like to know how Phase 3 ends and how Phase 4 starts. As Dr. Strange aptly put it in Infinity War, "We are in the endgame now".

Captain Marvel
Carol Danvers come back to earth amidst an intergalatic war and would be shown before The Avengers Endgame. Similar to what Marvel did prior to The Avengers Infinity War, they showed The Black Panther. Hoping to connect the prior film to the next. We are sure Captain Marvel will provide some material and story to the defeat of Thanos, I hope.

Spiderman Far From Home
Yes he is far from home as we saw Peter Parker got dusted at the snap. Although this is somewhat of a spoiler film. We now know that Peter survived after The Avengers Endgame. We are glad that he did or he will, and would love to see this film due to this fact.

Glass
Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, James McAvoy, M. Night Shaymalan. Great Cast with a Great Director. We do hope this film can do no wrong.

That was out Top 10 films but wait, we would like to add number 11 to the mix.

Hellboy

We loved the Hellboy series and we were disappointed that number 3 wasn't made. Now that this film is not Number 3 but a reboot. No matter, we still love Hellboy we will watch this in 2019. We love Milla Jovovich and she will be here as the villain. With a great supporting cast, we hope this will be a start of a new franchise.

Other films that might be worth the wait are the following;