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See What Show: Wonderland

I watched Director Chai Yee-Wei’s latest film, Wonderland, very early on, alone in his company’s mixing studio.
By the end of the film, I sat there in the darkness, a tear in my eye, a lump in my throat, trying to process my feelings, and reflecting on my own family histories and stories.

I have to say, this is one of the best Singapore films I have watched in a while.

The performances by Mark Lee, Peter Yu and Xenia Tan were authentic and moving. The ensemble cast of neighbours were also very entertaining and real.

And Yee-Wei really captured the vibe of Singapore in the 1980s.

Go watch it. It deserves all the awards it has won so far. It deserves your time.

mrbrown’s Inflight Movie mini-reviews: June 2022

My journey to and from the US was long. So I watched a TON of movies. Some on the way to San Jose, some on the way back, some in the hotel.

Here is mrbrown’s Inflight Movie mini-reviews:

Blacklight: Liam Neeson should just stop making movies.

The Outfit: Slow burn but so satisfying. A cut above the rest.

Clean: Almost zero story and filled with caricatures, but Adrien Brody is great as an avenging garbage man. The violence is almost poetic.

The Lost City: A surprisingly not-lame rework of Romancing the Stone. Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum are hilarious together.

The Contractor: I’m a Chris Pine fan but the ending disappointed. Some nice action here and there though.

Everything Everywhere All at Once: Everything Dr Strange 2 tried to be. This is the real Multiverse movie this year. Mind-screwing sci-fi with heart. Michelle Yeoh shows you what a massive star she is.

mrbrown’s Inflight Movie mini-reviews, Japanese edition:

First Gentleman 総理の夫: Cute movie about a guy whose wife becomes the first female PM of Japan. Could have done more with the subject matter. But this is patriarchal Japan so don’t expect feminist ideas.

Time Trip App 幕末高校生: It had Satomi Ishihara in it. That’s it. Teacher and her students time travel to Edo-period Japan and try not to change history.

Masquerade Night: A somewhat convoluted murder mystery movie. Sequel to Masquerade Hotel. Takuya Kimura and Masami Nagasawa reprise their role as detective and concierge in yet another mystery in Hotel Cortesia Tokyo. The two actors are a pleasure to watch.

See What Show: The Batman

Wow I did NOT expect The Batman to be THIS good. It is the best Bat-anything since The Dark Knight. I love the focus on the World’s Greatest Detective.

I don’t quite know how this will work since it is outside the DCEU (which might be a good thing). But man, am I glad they made it.

The action was brutally awesome. Gotham looked gritty. The cinematography was breathtaking. And Robert Pattinson is no longer a sparkly vampire in my mind.

The movie is dark. This isn’t quippy and happy Batman. At the same time, it isn’t a rehash of Nolan’s Batman either. It is its own thing. I feel it is larger than Batman. It’s about Gotham and all the mess that exists in it. Batman is just part of the larger Gotham story.

I like how they made The Riddler so disturbing. I always thought he was a joke. I did not recognize Colin Farrell as the Penguin too.

It is really more a mystery movie than a superhero one, and I enjoyed that.

I’m still haunted by that shot of Batman holding the flare. It was like a painting.

I look forward to a follow-up movie.

Warning: Make sure you pee first. It’s a three-hour movie. And go see it in IMAX. Gorgeous.

See What Show: Eternals

I went to watch Marvels' Eternals with some trepidation because of all the bad critic reviews.

But I enjoyed it a lot. Beautifully shot, lovely costume design, great performances, and nice action set pieces.

The Deviants were a tad generic but the movie had soul. I felt the feelings.

I don’t get the Eternals hate from the critics. Maybe they don’t like to see a diverse cast like this. Maybe they wanted the usual formula of witty Marvel banter. I don’t know. The hate seems over the top.

Chloe Zhao showed that you CAN bring ten superheroes together that no one has ever seen, and make the ensemble work. And make us feel for them.

There is a lot going on, and you will need to follow the plot a little closely, but I enjoyed the questions and tensions it created.

Angelina Jolie was badass as Thena and I appreciated that Chloe Zhao didn’t let the big stars like Jolie and Hayek hog the limelight, choosing instead to use them sparingly in the background.

Gemma Chan held the fort so well. I’m glad they brought her back after her stint as Minn-Erva in Captain Marvel.

I think this movie looks best on IMAX. Them mountains and landscapes are awesome in IMAX. I’m also a bit of an ancient history nerd. So looking at all the civilizations referenced excited my little mind and made me want to go back and play Sid Meier's Civilization VI.

It looks to be a divisive movie. Some call it the worst Marvel movie so far, as bad as Thor: The Dark World (I did not think that was very bad either) or as bad as The Incredible Hulk (the one with Edward Norton in it, and yes, this wasn't very good). I certainly don't think it is bad.

Some say it is the best movie Marvel has ever made, which I think is a little high praise. I think it is a nice effort to do something different. It is a somewhat more serious Marvel movie than usual (it certainly isn't Guardians of the Galaxy) that stands on its own, unencumbered by ties to the MCU and yet fits into that universe too. You can enjoy this self-contained movie if you have never seen an MCU movie before, but it is cool if you want to know why the Eternals never interfered in the Avengers saga. It is quite convincingly explained.

Stay for the two post-credit scenes, and if you want to enjoy them, don’t look for the leaks.

See What Show: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

I highly recommend you watch Tony Leung in Father of Shang-chi and the Legend of his Ten Rings.

I really enjoyed the movie. It’s a firm step into Phase 4. The action was spot on, the martial arts set pieces looked great, and I was even moved in some scenes.

The third act was a little much but overall, they did a fine job making this Hollywood version of a Hong Kong action flick.
I also liked the strong women portrayed in this movie. Very badass.

There was also a significant amount of screen time where the characters spoke Chinese, with English subs. Heck, the movie even opens with a Chinese narration. That added to the authenticity of the movie, I felt. Instead of trying to make everything in English.

You can tell they spent a lot of time getting the martial arts right, and the look right, so that it does not have a Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders cringe.

Oh, Simu Liu did a good job as Shang-Chi too. But we all know we are going to see my man Tony do his thing. So let’s not be shy about it.

I hope to see some prequel movie or tv series on Disney+ about Wenwu in future. You can’t have too much Tony Leung.

See What Show: Without Remorse

Amazon Prime’s Without Remorse was a serviceable action flick held together by Michael B. Jordan playing Navy SEAL John Clark. Or more like Michael B. Jordan playing Michael B. Jordan.

But it is NOTHING like the original Tom Clancy book that fans loved. Fans of the book may even hate it for the dumbed-down cliched plot that you could see from a mile away.

And the movie is so obviously trying to set up a Rainbow Six franchise as well.

I would watch this as an action movie but not as a Tom Clancy movie. I doubt we will get anything better than The Hunt for Red October.

The problem with Tom Clancy books is the sheer amount of detail in them, and perhaps the stories are better told in a tv series format than a movie.

I thought the Amazon Prime Jack Ryan series, at least for season 1, captured the feel and tone of Tom Clancy's legacy even if they updated the plot. But so far, very few movies have done his books justice.

See What Show: Godzilla vs Kong

Godzilla vs Kong was silly, over-the-top fun. The plot is full of nonsense (Hollow Earth simisai) and the human bits were unnecessary. But the monster fights made up for everything.

Forget physics. Forget logic. Forget acting. Just watch it to see Godzilla and Kong fight on an aircraft carrier. Or Kong rip off the head of a flying beast and eat its brains. Or Godzilla shoot beams into everything.

(Question: Isn’t having shorter arms a fighting disadvantage for Godzilla?)

Then escape the sad state of recent movie releases.

Heck, Kong even goes Thor in the movie. That’s how nuts it gets.

Sometimes, we just want some escapism to get away from the pandemic we are living in. Godzilla vs Kong worked.

More please. Thanks.

See What Show: Mile 22

Mile 22 was a pretty crappy movie. I’m glad I didn’t watch it at the cinemas in 2018. I think this may be Mark Wahlberg’s worst movie.

Marky Mark plays James Silva, an always-angry CIA operative whose Overwatch (haha!) team needs to escort an asset from Indonesia who knows where some bad nuclear thingie is. They have to travel from the embassy of “Indocarr” (fictional place but they speak Indonesian) to the airport where a plane is waiting to extract them, and it is… 22 miles away.

Of course, they don’t call a Gojek, but instead fight their way to their destination while being chased by Indocarr’s special forces and street punks. Taking Gojek would have been faster.

In the middle of the movie, Mother (John Malkovich) who is their handler, computer team leader, and general eye in the sky, has to explain the plot all over again so that you will not be confused by the convoluted first half of the movie.

There is even the line from a recurring series of SNL Andy Samberg sketches parodying Mark Wahlberg, "Say hi to your mother for me."

Wah, they play mother one.

You also get to hear Wahlberg explain a bunch of things in the middle of the movie to his debriefing team. In case, you need more exposition. And you also get to see how bad Ronda Rousey's acting is.

They have it all. A crack team, every weapon known to man, air and satellite support provided by Asian chiobu rapper CL (Lee Chae-rin), killer drones, nerdy MIT-trained computer experts saying high-tech things but unable to unlock an encrypted hard drive, and documents that they sign before a mission that state they are no longer American citizens as evidence of their ultimate patriotism.

The only thing they don't have is a decent plot.

Naturally, a country must be depicted like some dingy Third-World banana republic full of corrupt cops and slums. And for some reason, the motorcycle-riding bad guys wear black from top to toe. In our Southeast Asian heat.

Even the twist in the plot (yes, I will save you the trouble of watching this by telling you there is a twist), was ultimately unsatisfying and a cheap attempt at setting up a possible sequel (Mile 23?).

What a waste of John Malkovich and The Raid’s Iko Uwais.

Option 1: Diplomacy
Option 2: Military
Option 3: Watch something else.

See What Show: Ted Lasso

I did not expect to enjoy Apple TV+’s new show, Ted Lasso. I mean, come on: a Ned Flanders kind of character leading a Premier League football team?

Well, somehow, like the character in the show, it wins me over with its sweet kindness and sincerity. It is genuinely funny too.

In a year of bad news and coronavirus, Ted Lasso is the optimism and hope we need.

The ensemble cast is part of its strength and his assistant coach, Coach Beard, and kit man Nathan, are a hoot. Like football, this show is a team game.

Jason Sudeikis also shows he can act. It is not easy to take a parody character and make you feel empathy for him but Jason pulls it off in some rather touching moments.

I watched it thinking it was some silly comedy but it turned out to be more than that. It really grows on you.

Ted Lasso may be the reason you renew your free trial of Apple TV+ that you got with a new iPhone. Also, I am looking forward to Foundation. So I’ll hang around a little longer.

See What Show: Mulan

Besides the lack of travel, this year has been marked by the lack of cinema-going too. Blockbuster movies have been delayed or pushed back. Cinemas were closed. We’ve been also locked down.

So it was with some excitement that the Wife and I went to watch the premiere of Disney’s Mulan. Tenet was the first movie we watched post-circuitbreaker but Mulan was the one we understood.

It was also very enjoyable and I’m glad we caught it on the big screen. I think the US is getting it on Disney+ (you buy it from the streaming service) but we get to see it on the big screen here.

It is quite the spectacle.

No, there is no Mushu. No, there is no cutesy humour. No, there isn’t even any singing. Just leave your animated Mulan expectations at the door and watch this as a different movie. A little more serious. A lot of pomp and grandeur.

You can tell Disney has put in a lot of effort to get the costumes and the sets right. The kungfu wire work is also spot on.

Where you might get a little thrown off is the Chinese-accented English and the English-accented pronunciation of Chinese names. Some of the over-emphasis on morals and love of country can also feel a little cringey and smell a little of propaganda.

But, get past some of the cringe and you will find a kickass movie about a kickass heroine who, well, kicks ass.

I like that the focus is on Mulan herself. The romance angle from the animated movie was played down too. This is all about a young woman’s journey to finding her place in a male-dominated society. And you will cheer her as she does it.

This is one of the best animated to live-action movie adaptions that Disney has ever done. This is no meh Cinderella or Lion King.

Think of it as a tribute to all the Chinese wuxia period movies you’ve watched before. Sure, we are familiar with the tropes and may find it hokey seen through the lens of Hollywood, like we did when Crouching Tiger came out. But I think it’s a credible effort and enjoyable for the family.

Go see it in the cinema. Oh and see if you can recognize Jet Li.

See What Show: TENET

Just saw TENET, my first movie since I saw 1917 in February.

I have only the faintest idea of what is going on. I am still trying to pick up the pieces of my brain after it was blown. And I will up all night, sleepless, trying to think through the plot.

BUT WOW, what a rush! Tenet makes Inception feel like Sesame Street. My head hurts.

This is one of those movies that will be watched over and over again and analyzed for years. Epic.

Some nerd please draw a chart to eventually explain everything to me.

Side note: Must see in IMAX.

See What Show: The Old Guard

mrbrown’s #WFH mini movie reviews: The Old Guard was not brilliant but it was a watchable action Netflix thing. Did not make me pui chow nua like 6 Underground.

Took a while to build up. Action was nice. Villain was cookie cutter. I’d like to see more Quynh. Sequel is very likely. Charlize Theron is an action flick goddess. Please show more of her past in the next movie. I also want to see more of her axe.

Middle part of the movie a little too much exposition. It’s so obviously a setup for a franchise and a sequel. It felt more like a tv series pilot than a full-on movie.

I bet the graphic novel was better. The last book of the sequel is out, I think.

Other stuff I’m watching now or soon: Warrior Nun and Apple TV+‘s Greyhound.

Also fun was The Great, on Hulu, about Catherine the Great.

In this time of COVID-19, it seems like the only movie options come from streaming services. I don't know when we will feel safe enough to go back to the cinema.

See What Show: 1917

Sam Mendes's World War I movie, 1917, is one of the best war movies I have ever seen. And I am a HUGE war movie fan.

Shot in what looks like one continuous take, the movie grabs you from the start and immerses you in the story.

My wife falls asleep often in movies that don't work. She did not sleep during this entire movie. It was surreal, she said, to watch the story unfold this way.

You follow two young British soldiers — Schofield and Blake — as they go on an almost suicide mission: to get across No Man’s Land with a letter to save 1,600 men from a German ambush.

Blade Runner 2049's cinematographer, Roger Deakins, needs to win all kinds of awards for this.

There are stars like Colin Firth, Mark Strong, and Benedict Cumberbatch playing secondary characters in the film, but they are never used to outshine the story. Instead, you are made to care about the two men on an impossible mission, as you gape at the horrors of the First World War, the "The war to end all wars".

Go watch it in IMAX. It is not in 3D but that screen really works well for this movie.

See What Show: 6 Underground

Here is another mrbrown’s Mini-movie Review, that came out of being sick over the weekend and looking for something to watch.

Netflix's 6 Underground was Michael Bay doing one mindless action sequence after another without a story. This US$150 million movie was meant to set up a franchise of sequels. Oh please no.

Even watching this while drowsy from cough mixture did not make it better. Even Ryan Reynolds couldn't save this stinker.

I waited for two hours for a coherent story to come out of it all, but nope. Nothing. Nada. We did get an overly-long 15-minute car chase scene, flying blood, and waaaay too much parkour.

6 Underground should have STAYED underground and not seen the light of day.

I should have watched The last two episodes of The Mandalorian on Disney+ instead. Or even any Korean drama that my wife is currently bingeing on.

I wish they still had the ratings system on Netflix so I can warn others about shows like these.

See What Show: ‪Terminator: Dark Fate

We finally get the T2 sequel we deserve. ‪Terminator: Dark Fate is the easily best sequel after Terminator 2: Judgment Day. I know, the bar is low. But it was a really fun ride.

When it wasn’t trying too hard to be emo and drama, the movie really rocked. The action set pieces were spot on. Some of the CG was a little weak in small places, like one or two face-transformations but it was not Gemini Man level bad.

And wow. Linda Hamilton really stole the show. So glad she is back.‬ She spent a year with no carbs and full exercise to get back in shape for this and it shows. I want to look like this kind of Merdeka Generation.

Maybe it is me getting older and grumpier but I totally connected with the cranky badassery that Sarah Connor brought to the table.

The new Terminator Rev-9 looks sufficiently dangerous. You could say he is twice the man the others were.

Arnold is back this time too. He has appeared in the other sequels before but I like this version of him. He brings a quiet strength to the movie and has some of the funniest lines. This is Swarzenegger’s best outing since T2.

Mackenzie Davis was also a delight to watch. Her lean, statuesque figure was a nice contrast to the brute force of the Rev-9 when they fought. Grace was a good name for her. I also liked the subtle details like the surgical lines on her body.

As for the other post-T2 sequels, let’s call them Terminator Legends. As far as I am concerned, Dark Fate is the true Terminator 3. Let’s forget the other sequels existed.

Is Terminator: Dark Fate better than Terminator 2? No. That is a difficult movie to follow. But Dark Fate holds its own.

Oh, James Cameron, welcome back. We missed you. Please do the real Aliens sequel too. Thanks.

See What Show: Joker

We were waiting to see what Joaquin Phoenix was going to do with the Joker movie, and he did not disappoint. Joaquin Phoenix acted the HECK out of this one.

In fact, the movie is held together by his performance.

However, I am not sure if I like the movie. I can't decide, like my friend Gwee. One the one hand, it is a powerful piece of drama. On the other hand, it is a dark and depressing tale. If you are looking for a superhero/supervillain movie, this ain't it. And it is even out-darks The Dark Knight.

I am also not sure if I liked the movie's treatment of mental illness.

Will I watch this again? I don't think so. It made me sad. I could not put on a happy face.

See What Show: Gemini Man

Gemini Man was an average and predictable action film with some horrible CG scenes. Especially the ones with "young" Will Smith. So jarring, the CG.

It is Superman-in-Justice-League-no-moustache-mouth bad. In 3D at 120 frames-per-second (fps) and 4K resolution, the flaws are even more obvious. It is like watching a bad TV movie.

Will Smith plays an assassin who is targeted by his employers, by a younger version of himself. End of story. You can see the entire plot from a mile away. And he did not even have an interesting sidekick. Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays some agent who helps him along the way. zzzzz. At least his pilot buddy, Benedict Wong, was a bit more interesting.

Killers who were marked to be killed is not a new plot idea. RED did it. But RED did it with style and humour. And the cast was top class. So it can't be the idea that made this movie suck.

Why, Lee Ang? Why? First Hulk, now this. Why cannot do a good action movie?

You know what are the warning signs? When you see a list of Chinese companies at the start of the movie as the funders. Like Pacific Rim 2. Then you better get ready to be disappointed.

Also annoying was the overly obvious Coca-Cola product placement. The movie kept showing Will Smith drinking it. Oi, we know lah. He drinks Coke. Ok.

Now I am worried about Bad Boys For Life. I like Will Smith leh, but why another stinker like Gemini Man? Sigh.

Here is Kim Huat's reaction:

the browns go to NYC to see Game of Thrones Final Season premiere

Singtel and HBO sent the wife and me to New York City to watch the gala premiere of Game of Thrones, Final Season, Episode 1. When we first heard from them, I was like, REALLY? We get to fly to watch the long-awaited final season of GoT??? Before ANYONE else on earth?

My wife is an even bigger fan of GoT than I am. And this was MAJOR brownie points. Even my second brother, who is a hardcore fan (he has watched ALL of GoT from Season 1 to 7 at least three times per episode) was jellies. He wanted me to pack him in my suitcase and take him along.

So we packed our bags in a hurry, grabbed the Singtel ReadyRoad SIM Card, and flew to the Big Apple for the Big Event. We visited the huge Iron Throne at 30 Rock and queued to redeem our tickets at the HBO HQ.

You can see how excited we both were. Like little kids off to see the circus. Of course, we had to go to the HBO store to get us some merch. I got my brothers some GoT tees, to share a bit of the excitement.

That very night, we got dressed up and went to Radio City Music Hall for the show. The wife asked, "Are we watching all six episodes of Season 8?"

"Er, no dear. You wish. Only Episode 1. I think the stars want to go home and won't be able to sit through more than six hours at the screening," I said.

A large number of the cast came, and they graced the stage to a standing ovation. It felt like forever that the series began in 2011, and to see the cast from the first season till now, made the hairs of my arm stand.

And the a hush came over the hall and the show began. We laughed, we cheered, we clapped. It was like a reunion with the show that took an almost two-year break from Season 7. And then, it was over.

We walked out of Radio City Music Hall with so many questions. So many feelings. I sent out a live video with my wife, to the fans back home. And then we walked past the red carpet area where the stars walked, as they dismantled the scaffolding. Then we realized we had to wait a few more weeks before we could see the rest of Season 8. Sigh.

Do sign up with Singtel and HBO if you want to catch the rest of the final season of GoT. It is with a mix of anticipation, at the conclusion of a story we have followed for years, and some sadness, that it was all going to end, that we felt as we walked home to our hotel in Broadway.

At least we still had a few nights left in NYC, to see some shows, to walk in Central Park, and to visit the MET before going home. It was one of the best trips the wife and I have ever had in the States. Thanks Singtel and HBO!

Going home is such sweet sorrow. It was such a chore not spilling the beans on what I saw at the gala. But mrbrown is no spoiler of shows. So my lips are sealed. That's what I do: I drink and I know things.

See What Show: Dragged Across Concrete

I watched Dragged Across Concrete last night with the missus. It was 2 hours 39 minutes long but the slow burn crime thriller was very satisfying. I loved the storytelling and the characters in the movie. And my favorite character in the movie doesn't even have a name.

Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn play two dirty cops in this B movie that somehow manages to subvert the genre. Instead of non-stop violence, you are treated to long stretches of dialogue and waiting.

In one scene, you watch Vince Vaughn's character Lurasetti slowly eating his sandwich in a stakeout, and Gibson's character Ridgeman snarls, "A single red ant could have eaten it faster.” I laughed out loud at that silly moment.

But somehow the slow burn works and you are drawn into the story as it slowly unfolds, punctuated with moments of shocking violence.

The other amazing thing is how quickly director/writer S. Craig Zahler makes you feel for characters who are introduced out of nowhere, and who get sucked into the vortex of the criminal underbelly.

I didn't even realize 159 minutes had gone by until we left the theatre (the wife and I were the ONLY ones in the preview hall, it was like our own cinema), and then all the stores in Lido were closed.

It is to watch something clever like this instead of the usual blockbuster stuff we see all the time. Recommended if you like old school crime movies.

Kim Huat and Alita: Battle Angel

Kim Huat visits Wellington, New Zealand and the WETA folks, to find out how Alita: Battle Angel was made.

YouTube link: youtu.be/YOtKD-8F8M8