Re-create Jules Verne -- Journey to the Centre of the Earth

I was there for Jules Verne. Previously I expected a remake of this all-time classic novel, just to find out that this is actually a "re-creation".

A geologist happened to find the clues to his brother's mysterious missing, so headed for a journey to discover the truth, along with his little nephew, and a novel named "Journey to the Centre of the Earth", yup, THAT one, by Jules Verne. On the way they met a beautiful mountain guide, and the threesome set out for an exciting adventure.

Sounds familiar? If you have read the book before, it will be even more familiar. Director Eric Brevig was smart enough to not to make it like a LOTR trilogy (if you stick to the novel, could be), but use several classic scenes to re-create a story instead. Of course he deleted quite many days of the journey (the movie shows around 72 hours' length, while in the novel the adventura lasts for weeks), like those Robinson Crusoe style of survivor games. I particularly thank him for deleting those scenes that the uncle and nephew pair quarallling about the question of "to go ahead or to go back", which is the thing I hate most in the novel. Finally the movie length is below 100 min, and was rated as "PG" in most countries, which means it became a ideal "summer vacation movie". Now you know why there are some many parents taking their school-age children to this movie.

Although there are some many deleted scenes, the re-created story still sounds reasonable, all thanks to the extremely strong logic lies in the novel itself. And the writer is smart too. With such a classic, the best thing you can do is to keep the mainframe, adding some funny conversations, a little bit details here and there, and that would be perfect. Never, ever, try to destroy a classic and build up your own on the ruin.

Brendan Fraser did not get his chocolate muscles in this movie, so don't expect those "eye icecream" scenes, like in "The Mummy 3". But he is really set for such kind of roles.

The little nephew played by Josh Hutcherson looks like a combination of Elijha Wood and Daniel Redcliffe. Cute.

The scene that the threesome taking on a trolley trip in the abandoned mine is totally recycled from "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". Similar settings, similar shootings, even similar roles! (Man, woman and a boy) Talking about that trolley track, I clearly remembered that I played that before in some theme park. And the worst thing is, the digital effect sucks! You can easily find out that the threesome and the trolley are "pasted" to the background, and the edges are fragmented, even an amateur CG job now could do better than this. Actually the whole scene is just to show how the threesome find the entrance to the lava tunnel. In this case, if they can now do it nicely, why not change to some other way?

Finally there is a hint for a possible sequel, as quite many Hollywood movies did these days. Hope that could come true.

A Firework Show -- The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

A firework show, this is my feeling after watching the latest episode of that all-time classic, The Mummy.

Actually it was the leading actor, Brendan Fraser himself, that described a blockbuster movie without a good story as a "firework show", during a recent interview with some movie magazine. Unfortunately, this term could be used to describe his movie here, too.

The leaving of director and writer Stephen Sommers has predicted the problem of this movie. The story line is neither convincing nor surprising. To those audience that have some basic knowledge about Chinese history, it's even worse -- the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang (literally "the first emperor of Qin dynasty), was renamed as "Emperor Han" (Han is actually a dynasty that right after Qin)!
The new writer seems to have focused on the dragons and zombies only, and thrown out of the window those funny conversation and small tricks from the previous two episodes. Come on, this is summer, blockbuster season! We have had more than enough CGs, robots, explosions, etc., adding one more doesn't look that interesting. I happened to watch the first "The Mummy" last week, really miss the laughters that Rick, Eve and Jonathan can bring me.

Rachel Weisz is wise enough not to get involved with this movie. The replacement, Maria Bello, seems to have more interests in becoming the next Lara. But as far as we remembered, Eve was just a cute little girl, the brain of the threesome in the adventure, and always need some rescues from Rick (and such rescues are always the most attracting scenes). We do not like Eve because of her kick-ass techniques; we like Eve because she is Eve.

Brendan finally gets back to fit. But this movie seems to be a big waste of his muscles. Hope he could get some more luck in the next "Journey to the Center of the Earth", at least that one has a genius writer.

Luke Ford, as the son Alex, is just too normal. Without a memorable name like Shia LaBeouf (I still cannot pronounce it!), or the shining and killing smile of Freddie Boath (who plays the role Alex in "The Mummy Returns"), he just couldn't make us excited.

Oh BTW, there are some other people in this movie, namely, Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh and Isabella Leong. In this movie, they could be replaced by anybody.

The Darkest Time -- Batman: The Dark Knight

"The dark before the dawn is the darkest" (I'm not talking about McCaine, although he had some problems with this quote recently.) This is my feeling about the recent Batman movie.

Christopher Nolan, the director had warned us that this will be the darkest Batman movie that ever made. Actually I even think that this is the darkest movie that I've ever watched. The darkness, is not about the cruel and cold-blooded Joker, but torturing EVERY role by making them to make choices about life and morality. Jimmy has to choose from an unrightful apology or his son's life; Fox has to choose to use or destroy the powerful yet indecent overhearing system; people on the ferry boats have to choose to blow somebody else off or to wait for their own destine to come; even the old Alfred has to choose a "right time". Heath Ledger might be pushed to much by such a movie to be ended like that.

I don't quite understand why the Nolan brothers have some hostility again China in the script. The low-quality gun was "made in China", and Chinese government "will never extradite one of their own"? Come on, cold war has ended for decades! And for the record, this movie has not yet got the permission to be shown in mainland China, and you know why now.

Gary Oldman is really an "oldman" now. Let's hope that the next Batman movie could be made within these coming two to three years, otherwise he might be too old to take the role that I like very much. Maggie Gyllenhaal looks sooooo 1930's, and even if she's the elder sister to Jake Gyllenhaal, I cannot see the point to pick her as Rachel. Aaron Eckhart is shining as Harvey Dent, but not quite as Two-Face. But he should get people to remember his name now. Christian Bale fades to the background, just shows from time to time to reminds me that this IS a Batman movie.

The glory goes to Heath Ledger. His Joker is so pain-causing. It seems that he could jump out of the screen at any moment, with a knife in your mouth, and says, "Why So Serious?". I know that many people say that he should win an Oscar for this role. That's true. It's a once-for-a-life chance, and he use his life to catch it.

The music is quite striking, especially when you are sitting in a hall with the best audio equipment in town. And the shooting and editing is some masters' piece. Actually I even did not dare to look at the screen several times during the whole show.

BTW that Edison Chan, all his scenes include: one far-far-away shot from the heli, one from the back without the head, and the only one in front, -- out of focus. Is this kind of arrangement before or after his scandal?

Growing up - The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Within all my friends, about half of them do not like the first piece of Narnia; even me myself, when I first watched it, I thought it was much, much below LOTR, not only the rating, but also the age of the target audience.

Now here comes the second one, which, refreshes my impression to this series with a "grown-up" feeling. For those who still think that this is a "Boy's Play", YOU ARE WRONG!

One year after the first movie, U.K. is in the centre of war. The foursome just tuned themselves back to the normal life. While in Narnia, it has been 1,300 years. A Hamlet (Prince Caspian) blew the horn that belongs to Susan, and bring them back to Narnia. Another war "for Narnia" is coming.

Actually we don't really care about who they are fighting against, what kind of spirits or animals they are fighting with, what new skills they grasped , or what strategies (smart or stupid) they are going to use. All what we know is, they are back, they are going to fight, and they will finally leave. Although there are several mistakes, both in the plot and the shooting (e.g., when the foursome were walking in the cave after they first back to Narnia, it was Edmund, who was taking the lead, that held a torchlight, but some "mysterious" light appeared behind the last one, Lucy.), but come one, who did NOT make such mistakes? Especially in Hollywood. So don't worry too much, don't calculate too much, just sit back and relax to enjoy this movie, as if it was a break in your boring life, just like Narnia is a break for the foursome in the WWII life. The only difference is, it will take you 2 and a half hours to finish this movie, while they only used 1 second to finish a war, and even a first love for someone.

Ben Barnes (as Prince Caspian) has a very promising look and an even more promising chance (he is also the lead for the next Narnia movie), hope he could be the next Orlando Bloom. So far he still needs some more practice in his acting (exactly the same case for Orlando in LOTR!).

In the foursome, my favorite is still the little Lucy, Georgie Henly. She is just so cute! Maybe she is not talented enough to handle all kinds of roles, just like Darkota Fanning did, but it seems that she could easily push Abigail Breslin into the shadow now (Hi Abigail, if you keep staying in your current status, you might be the next Kristen Dunst only).

Peter also got a quite good look in fact. The only problem might be, he does not look quite "characteristic", so you might easily mistake him with other blondes in Hollywood. Susan is obviously over-aged, and if she chose to stay in this business, we might just get another actress that you remember you saw her in some movie, just cannot recall the name, neither the movie's or hers. Edmund looks is just a loser, hope he could do better in the next sequel.

Not much to say for the supporting roles, except the fencing rat. Everybody knows you guys are just copy-catting from Shrek, why bother change it into a "copy-rat"? (Ever consider lend the voice from Antonio Benderas?)

The scene of the beach, valley and the river is awesome. But the CG lion Aslan is disappointing. Soooo fake!

Unlike the Golden Compass, I'm really looking forward to seeing Narnia 3 now!

Grab the bride as you can -- Made of Honor

After ten years' play-boy life, he finally figured out that the "friend forever" is actually his "love forever". The problem is, she is getting married, and he could only become the "Maid of Honor". So, he decided to do whatever he could, to "get the groom out of the picture". (Really think that the tagline used in Singapore is much better than the one in western countries.)

We always know that what we can expect from such a script: funny scenes, cute quotes, kisses, and finally, crash of a wedding and success of another one. Now we can take a look at who is involved: Patrick Dempsey (heard of this guy, thanks to "Grey's Anatomy"), Michelle Monaghan (beauties in MI:III and "Mr. & Mrs. Smith", not quite meaningful...). Does this name list attract you?

The script writer is obviously not creative, but quite funny. The joke about Clinton and Monica goes all the way from the beginning to the end, nice try for a movie released in another election year. My favorite is the basketball match between the NBA ego and the Scottish big guy, a big slap for those think only Americans know how to play this game.

Dempsey reminds me Hugh Jackman, just more bad-boy-like. But women always love bad boys, right? :-)
Ms. Monaghan should sue her plastic surgeon, for her nose looks just like MJ's, I mean the current one...

A man keeps playing around with all kinds of women for 10 years before realizing the truth; A woman keeps waiting for a man who keeps playing around with all kinds of women for 10 years before realizing the truth, who is sillier? You tell me.

End of their career? -- My Mom's New Boyfriend

Names like Antonio Benderas and Meg Ryan are once to be the main factor that attracts me to a movie. But remember this, however shining you are today, there will be a day coming to end it.

A B-class movie as it is, it's somewhat creative for the producer of "My Mom's New Boyfriend" to get Meg and Antonio to make some chemistry. And the son of Meg's long-time sure-win partner (I mean Tom Hanks), Collin Hanks, playing the son of Meg in this movie, this could definitely generate some scoop. But after all, a moive could not be successful with only these tricky things.

Antonio as an artist thief (smell the Latinic romance?), Colin as a young FBI agent who wants to track Antonio down (Sounds familiar? "Catch me if you can, son!"), and Meg as a middle-aged single mother who falls in love with Antonio. Bugs, Doggies, every routine things for a movie that is related for FBI, name it. The story is really not bad, and it should be a quite profitable project actually. Yet what we got here?

Middle-aged couple tries to catch up with the young generation: fall-in-love-with-the-first-sight? Come on, you are not teenagers any more! Weird Middle-East restaurant? That place could only remind us war now. And the worst scene of all? Seeing that once sweet Meg screaming and laughing like addicted to some things, if you know what I mean. I'm sure that I would like this movie much more if they faded to be the "background" only.

When you ignore this old couple, you will "suddenly" find the effort by Colin Hanks. His tones just like his old man! And all reminds me Tom Hanks in his earlier days like "The Man with One Red Shoe". Like Tom, Colin may not become a "girl killer", but the path to awards is open to him, if he keeps improving his acting. In this movie, my favourite scene is when he and two other FBI agents bugging his mother in bed with another man... *_*

Family Day at Wild Wild Wet

Really not the day for a water theme park -- it's raining! Hard!! Although I was just playing the camera-woman for the whole day, the cold water still got me fever for the next day.

But to the kids it was really a great experience. Just look at them screaming, running around, even brought me some "yesterday once more" feelings.

This theme park is rather small, compared to the ones I visited before, like the one in Gold Coast, and Sunway Lagoon in Malaysia. But nevertheless you can find some routine things like "Tsunami Lake", "Floating River", etc. And the mose exciting one will be this -- (Heard the screaming?)

The location of Wild Wild Wet is not that bad, as I imagined before. 10-15 min walk from the Pasir Ris MRT station, just next to the resort. Would be nice for a family's 2D1N package. What I like most is the latest EHub shopping centre just besides it, where you can hardly imagine that so many restaurants under one roof, especially in such a suburb area in Singapore!