Skyfall (2012)

As posted on Print the Legend by Choc:

Directed by Sam Mendes

Starring: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Berenice Marlohe, Naomie Harris

Rottentomatoes: 95%

IMDB  8.3

*minor spoilers ahead*

“Shaken, not stirred” — That’s how Skyfall, the 23rd Bond film, felt like to me. The essentials are the same, yet it feels like  a whole new drink altogether, as thoroughly refreshing, if not better, than the ones before. The flavor is uneven in an exciting kind of way.

Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition) has crafted one of the most uniquely beautiful Bond movies of all. Skyfall takes the franchise to uncharted realms thematically, even visually, but at the same time, guides it home, to where it all began, setting up an exciting future to the greatest film franchise ever. Daniel Craig’s hard-edged, anti-Bond Bond, which many thought was undone by Marc Forster’s meandering Quantum of Solace, has the persona on firm footing this time around.

Read the rest of the review on http://printthelegend.blog.com/2012/11/02/movie-review-skyfall-2012-55-stars/

Looper (2012)

As posted on Print the Legend by Choc:

Directed by Rian Johnson

Starring: Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt

Rottentomatoes: 93%

IMDB  8.1

Joseph Gordon-Levitt teams up with Director Rian Johnson (Brick, The Brothers Bloom) once again in this time-bending tale of cat and mouse.

JGL is Joe, a looper, an assassin in the present year 2044. A looper’s job is simple: kill or be killed. Joe’s targets are sent to him from the future, the year 2074, where time travel will have been invented but immediately outlawed. In 2074, the forensic know-how and technology are so advanced that criminals cannot get away with murder. Therefore a brand new  enterprise has sprouted where criminals illegally use time-travel to send the intended recipients of their murderous affections 30 years back in time, to 2044, where guys like Joe kill them without fanfare and dispose of the dead bodies.

Joe’s life is of relative convenience. In between jobs, he gets high, makes love to way too gorgeous hookers, and saves half of his paycheck in dreams of going to Paris where he’d like to spend the rest of whatever semblance of life he is living.

Read the rest of the review on http://printthelegend.blog.com/2012/10/19/34/.

Dredd (2012)

As posted on Print the Legend by Choc:

Movie Review: Dredd (starring Karl Urban’s mouth)

Image from TheMovieBlog

Dredd 3D (2012)  (Dir. by: Pete Travis)

Starring: Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby

Rottentomatoes: 76%

IMDB  7.8

**

What sorcery is this? How can both the time-tested critics of rottentomatoes and the cinephiliacs of imdb.con both  miss wide off the mark here?  76% on rotten and 7.8 on imdb?! Mind blown.

This movie fails on so many levels I just don’t know where to start.

As a sci-fi movie, it’s insulting. I don’t even think this qualifies as science fiction at all. All sci-fi movies (the good ones anyway) all have two things in common, their “conditio sine qua non” so to speak. First, in science fiction, the socio-political landscape is markedly different, this is why sci-fi is so interesting (for me at least) because this different “background” as often shown, happen in the future or in a different “universe” from our own. “Universe” in cinematic terms, is the “world” where the movie happens (not necessarily a collection of galaxies). Sci-fi is often misconstrued as that movie featuring hi-tech gadgets, and quirky costumes, but it’s not simply that. A good example is the movie “Never Let Me Go (2010) ” starring Keira Knightley and Spider boy Andrew Garfield, adapted from Ishiguro’s 2005 novel of the same name. In Never Let Me Go, there were, literally, nothing that would indicate that the story is happening in a different “universe” from ours. There were no fancy gadgets or fancy costumes, it looked absolutely normal and of this world. Yet, this movie was science fiction at the height of its power.

The Wrestler (2008)

The Wrestler (2008)
Directed by Darren Aronofsky

"The Wrestler" centers on Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke), a wildly popular professional wrestler from 2 decades ago who now barely makes ends meet as an aging wrestler in the independent circuit. With his health beginning to fail from his physically demanding job, he tries to amend his life by quitting wrestling, reconciling with his daughter he abandoned long ago and pursuing Cassidy, a prostitute he's been infatuated with for quite sometime. But his efforts failed him, and then he receives an offer to do a high-profile rematch with his nemesis "The Ayatollah", the match could be his ticket to bring back the old days once again.Failing health and all, he must decide whether life is better lived inside the ring, or outside of it.

Knocked Up (2007)

Article written by Choc:


I finally had the chance to see Judd Apatow's follow-up movie to his monster hit the 40-yr old Virgin. I've read reviews about this one and after watching the movie, I can understand why so many women think this movie is sexist (and too vulgar). Even its ridiculously pretty star Katherine Heigl is on record calling this movie "a little sexist," and elaborates:

Knocked Up 2007 - Directed by Judd Apatow

"It paints women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as goofy, fun-loving guys. It was hard for me to love the movie."


I don't think that's the case however.

The Painted Veil (2006)

"Sometimes the greatest journey is the distance between two people."

-The Painted Veil

An in-depth review by Choc:


Everybody says it, and everyone likes hearing the word, but what does "love" really mean?


One cynic said: "Love is just a ploy, devised by the gods to continue the species..."


Surely, not all of us share the sentiment of this hater. Most of us would rather intoxicate ourselves with the effervescent words of the great sages of love... this is why as high-school students, naive and idealistic, WE ALL loved Shakespeare...