Starring: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber
Directed by: Gavin Hood
Genre: Science-fiction/Fantasy
Running Time: 107 minutes
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is about a pair of brothers, Logan (Hugh Jackman) and Victor (Liev Schreiber) who find out about their powers, fight in countless (boring) wars and eventually join U.S Colonel Stryker's little army of mutants. Soon, Stryker asks them to do things they didn't agree to in the beginning, thus causing Logan to leave the group for a normal life (as a logger of all things, oh this is porno material I'm telling you).
He falls in love with a teacher (how predictable, fall in love with the poor frail woman with the boring job why don't you) and all is happy for a while. Then Stryker comes to warn him about Victor (who happens to be Sabretooth by the way), who seems to have become murderous over something I'm not quite sure of (trust and pride or something else chauvinistic like that), killing the mutants previously in Stryker's little group one by one. And thus the madness begins.
Mostly I had little to no expectations of this movie which is probably why it seemed better to me than it really should be. I'm not a fanboy of such franchises and never will be (the whole 'need to be as accurate to the book/story as possible' affair makes movie watching way too tiring for me), which I think is why the movie worked for me.
However it does feel a little too rushed, even for the very clueless me, with the storyline as bare as Hugh Jackman in a few scenes (and a hot few scenes they were!).
So for someone who doesn't know anything about Wolverine at all, the movie feels like two brothers who fought and decided to screw a lot of other people over while they're at it (whatever happened to good old "whipping it out and measuring"?). In other words, just don't bother thinking too much about the storyline. Watch the cool fights and effects and that will make your movie.
Or you could be a total girl (or gay) and just ogle the really handsome Hugh Jackman throughout the movie. That will work too.
Verdict: X-Men Origins: Wolverine is made watchable by its strong arsenal of sparkly visual effects candy (and eye candy too). If you're in it for anything else, you're going to be sorely disappointed.
Worth watching for: Awesome fight scenes (my favorite had to be Daniel Henney's gun scene and Ryan Reynolds' sword vs spraying bullets scene) and Hugh Jackman running around naked. Yes, NAKED. Again.
The Proposal (2009)
Friday, November 13, 2009
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds
Directed by: Anne Fletcher
Genre: Romance Comedy
Running Time: 108 minutes
In
The Proposal, a bitch of a boss Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) faces the danger of deportation and getting fired from her executive editor-in-chief position at a book publishing company because she was too busy and can't be bothered to fill in some forms or something I don't really care to understand. So with no solution in mind (I'm honestly surprised bribery didn't come into play, but I guess that would have been a little too sketchy), she conveniently grabs her assistant, Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) - who happens to be so, so hot, the injustice of this world I'm telling you - and announces her "engagement" with him.
Naturally, he agrees to this illegal affair (oh why wouldn't he, I mean, everybody does it, right?) only on the condition (there's
always the condition) that he gets promoted to editor so that he can accomplish his noble goal of publishing this book he really likes.
But the immigration officer is a bitch too (like all stereotypical, asshole-y government people in movies) and doesn't buy their story of being engaged, keeps an eye on them in hopes they slip up.
Now I strongly believe that one must not expect too much from romance comedies purely because it will always be very predictable and always ends happily-ever-after. That's just how they are and they should not be blamed for it. It's almost like blaming a horror movie for having a ghost appear suddenly with loud "BOOM" noises throughout the movie to shock the audience - that's the way it's done, get over it.
Similarly,
The Proposal is predictable in this way. However, the movie can only be described as extremely hilarious, with sarcasm overflowing from both main characters. It is very witty which can only be carried off with awesome chemistry between them two. There's not really a dull moment in the movie (though I cringed at the stripper part, trust me you will too) so the pace of the movie feels relatively brisk. The romance part is not nauseating and overwhelming and is frankly kept quite minimal till near the end, so guys can relax when watching this movie with your girlfriends too.
Verdict: The Proposal uses the basic foolproof recipe of romance comedies, but adds so much fun to it that it becomes a really enjoyable dish.
Worth watching for: The insanely witty banter and that hot yet hilarious scene of both of them naked. Yes, NAKED.
Rating: 95%
Labels: Romance Comedy, Ryan Reynolds, Sandra Bullock
About
Well hi, most of you who are reading this should know me by Raid from my previous blog which I shall not explain in detail since those of you who know would already know and those of you who don't probably shouldn't.
I'll mostly be reviewing English language movies in this blog, with the occasional Chinese/Korean/Japanese movie. The format of Raid on Screen will be kept as neat and minimal as possible, not too gimmicky. The synopses will be brief so as not to spoil the movie for you yet give you a good enough idea on what the movie is about.
Basically what I set out to do with this blog is just give frank reviews from a very layman perspective. Many times, I read movie reviews only to not understand a single shit the entire thing was trying to say and I don't get what warranted a good or bad review for the movie. With this blog, I'll try to make it feel like asking a friend about the movie. Although maybe that friend is a little bitchy at times.
"How was the movie?" "Oh it kinda sucked but you know, the effects were cool and all and the lead actress was hot even though her boobs looked really fake in that one scene."I've always believed that simpler terms get more meaning across.
There will be two regular sections in every review, which is the
Verdict and the
Worth Watching For.
Verdict is my overall, one-line take on the movie, for you lazy people.
Worth Watching For are the parts or elements in the movie that I think makes the movie worth watching. It could be a really huge reason, such as having the best effects ever, or it could be something really small, like a tune which a character sings in a part of the movie.
Either way, I hope I can review movies such that it is easy for people to understand. I'm going to do reviews the right way.
My favorite genre would probably be romance comedies, because they're such a guilty pleasure. There's so little brainwork involved in watching them so it really suits me that way.
And um what else. Oh, I must say I am by no means an expert on cinematography or deciding whether the angles are good or whether the actors' performance is credible and stuff like that. Basically I just write what I feel about the movie, from a very ordinary point of view.
That said, some of the movies I've loved over the years are:
- Wimbledon (2004)
- SAW I (2004)
- The Holiday (2006)
- Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince (2009)
- The Proposal (2009)
So that's about it. Leave me comments on what you think about my reviews, whether you agree with it or not. But remember, all this is just for fun. I'm not a serious person and I can assure you that it shows in my very sub-par writing. I'm fun, I'm bitchy and I love defending my views from people who can attack them well. Try me. :D
Also, is it bad luck that I started this blog on Friday the 13th? 13th November 2009! Woah.
Starring:Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds
