Tuesday, December 29, 2020

(TV SERIES) Sweet Home Season 1 - Intense, Suspenseful Sometimes Melodramatic Monster Action Series based on Popular Line Webtoon

I have noticed this series a while ago but chose to skip it as I was finishing other series or watching new movies released on various platforms. Few days ago though, my wife's friend asked whether I had seen this and I decided to give it a try, since the premise did seem interesting. OK, let's head down to the series now.

Brief Story Line

Hyun-soo (Song Kang - When the Devil Calls Your Name, Love Alarm TV series etc) was a suicidal high school student who just moved to a new apartment. One day, the apartment was suddenly put on lockdown along with other buildings, in what appeared to be precaution due to monsters attack in the whole country. A very composed and calm man named Eun-hyuk (Lee Do-hyun - 18 Again TV series etc) realized the best way would be to keep themselves safe in the apartment and tried to keep everyone inside including his rebellious younger sister Eun-yoo (Go Min-si - Secret Boutique TV series etc). 

Sunday, December 27, 2020

We Can Be Heroes - A Truly Kid-Friendly Children Superhero Movie from Robert Rodriguez

I said earlier there were more than 1 movie released on various streaming platforms on Christmas day and I already watch one of them on that holiday, while this one I watched the day after. It seemed like a safe bet for Christmas holiday. Well let's find out more on it.

Brief Story Line

In the world where superheroes exist, a group of them who were referred to as Heroics always protected the earth. Heroics was led by Marcus Moreno (Pedro Pascal - The Mandalorian web series, Kingsman: The Golden Circle etc) and included many heroes such as Miracle Guy (Boyd Holbrook - Logan, Narcos TV series etc), Tech No (Christian Slater - Mr. Robot TV series, Broken Arrow etc), Blinding Fast (Sung Kang - Fast & Furious movies, Code 8 etc), Ms. Vox (American Idol alum Haley Reinhart), Lavagirl (Taylor Dooley) with her husband Sharboy and few others. 

Saturday, December 26, 2020

Soul - Another Beautifully Animated Movie from Disney/Pixar though Hardly the Most Memorable & Touching on a Personal Level

Yesterday this highly anticipated movie from Disney Pixar was finally released on Disney+, and as a fan of their works, I was definitely going to choose this one to watch despite there were other new movies available on different streaming platforms. Anyway, let's just get on with it.

Brief Story Line

When a middle school music teacher named Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx - Project Power, Ray etc) somehow gotten the gig of his lifetime to perform in a quartet with the famous jazz musician Dorothea Williams (Angela Basset - American Horror Story TV series, What's Love Got to do with It etc), he was so excited despite the disapproval from his mother Libba (Phylicia Rashad - Creed 2, Good Deeds etc).

Friday, December 25, 2020

The Midnight Sky - A Rather Slow-paced Sci-Fi Drama Movie Aided by Some Wonderful Special Effects & Awesome Musical Scores

There was this new sci-fi movie on Netflix which I thought would be a nice option to watch. It also stars George Clooney who has been playing in more serious roles in recent years. So I gave this a try yesterday and I'll get right to it now.

Brief Story Line

Set in the year 2049, the earth was exposed to radiation which would make it inhabitable. Dr. Augustine Lofthouse (George Clooney - Money Monster, Syriana etc) was one of the scientist working in the Arctic who refused to be evacuated due to his poor health condition. As he was looking at space missions, he noticed one was still active called Aether that was heading back to earth and tried to warn them not to return.

Thursday, December 24, 2020

(TV SERIES) Alice in Borderland Season 1 - Dark, Dramatic & Disturbing Series of Game of Life and Death based on Popular Manga

Again while looking for interesting new series to watch during last weekend, I found this one which seemed to be quite interesting. It was said to be based on a quite popular manga series and since I have not watched any Japanese movies for a while, I thought I'd like to give this a try. Now let's dive in to this series.

Brief Story Line

3 best friends that consisted of the unemployed & slacker Arisu (Kento Yamazaki - Death Note TV series, Kingdom etc), the tough & loyal Karube (Keita Machida - High & Low TV series & movies etc) and the kind hearted & religius Chota (Yûki Morinaga - Little Love Song etc) were just having fun on a normal day in Tokyo. But soon they found themselves in a world where they seemed to be the only ones left. Still confused on what happened, they were caught in the middle of a game of life and death where they have to win and extend their lives just for few more days.

Monday, December 21, 2020

(TV SERIES) The Wilds Season 1 - Surprisingly Quite Intense & Dark Teenage Survival Series

As I was browsing for series to watch during last weekend, I realized this one that I postponed a bit since I was in the middle of something else. It was released through Prime Video on 11 December, so it's not that late. I was intrigued by the premise as it reminded me a lot of a series which I loved a lot. Well, I'll get more into it now.

Brief Story Line

A group of high school girls went on a retreat to Hawaii for a trip which were supposedly good for their mental health. The teens consisted of the depressed Leah (Sarah Pidgeon), the strong willed Dot (Shannon Berry - Hunters TV series etc), the all American girl Shelby (Mia Healey), the short fused Toni (Erana James) and her best friend, the always positive Martha (Jenna Clause), the twins Nora (Helena Howard - Madeline's Madeline etc) & Rachel (Reign Edwards - The Bold and the Beautiful soap opera etc), the party girl Fatin (Sophia Ali - Truth or Dare etc) and the cheerful Jeannette (Chi Nguyen). 

Friday, December 18, 2020

(TV SERIES) The Flight Attendant - Fun Indeed with Lovely Performance from Kaley Cuoco

I saw this mini series getting a lot of hype on the internet and I read that the final episode was going to be released this week. So I decided to start watching it 3 days ago and managed to complete it last night. Well let's get on with the series now.

Brief Story Line

A flight attendant who was also an alcoholic named Cassie Bowden (Kaley Cuoco - The Big Bang Theory TV series, Lucky 13 etc) was quite irresponsible and loved to have sex with some of the passengers, such as Alex Sokolov (Michiel Huisman - 2:22, The Haunting of Hill House TV series etc). Her life was turned upside down when during one of her crazy nights, she was so drunk and woke up with dead body of her date. Fearing to be caught by police, she left the hotel and returned to work as if nothing happened.

Sunday, December 13, 2020

AVA - The Story of an Assassin with a Conscience

It was one of those weekends where I went back to browsing through TV cables on Saturday night (as I used to do years ago) and I came across this movie which I have seen its poster somewhere. Anyway since I have not seen it and looking at the brief synopsis seemed intriguing, I decided to watch it on Fox Movies channel. Well here's more on the movie.

Brief Story Line

Ava Faulkner (Jessica Chastain - It Chapter Two, Miss Sloane etc) was an assassin working for an organization led by Simon (Colin Farrell - Artemis FowlFantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them etc) with her handler Duke (John Malkovich - Mile 22Unlocked etc). After various missions, Ava started to question the reason for assassinating her targets which prompted Duke to ask her to take personal leave.

Thursday, December 10, 2020

(Mini Series) The Undoing - Bright Start with Wonderful Performance from its Main Cast, Some Predictable Twists and not Entirely Satisfying Ending

I have been meaning to watch this series when it was first released almost 2 months ago, but as usual I waited till it was completed before starting. I forgotten about it until there was news about it few days ago, so I decided to watch the whole series yesterday on a public holiday. Now let's get into it.

Brief Story Line

Grace (Nicole Kidman - AquamanPaddington etc) and Jonathan Fraser (Hugh Grant - The Gentlemen, About a Boy etc) were rich couple living in New York with their son Henry (Noah Jupe - Ford v Ferrari, The Titan etc) who was educated in a very expensive & exclusive private school Reardon. Grace herself was a successful psychiatrist and the only daughter of the wealthy Franklin Reinhardt (Donald Sutherland - Ad Astra, Pride and Prejudice etc), while Jonathan was a well known oncologist. In her spare time, Grace became part of Reardon's auction comittee together with several other mothers including her best friend Sylvia (Lily Rabe - Vice, American Horror Story anthology series etc) and a new young mother named Elena Alves (Matilda De Angelis).

Sunday, December 6, 2020

The Rhythm Section - Slow Build Up Led to a Dissatisfying Climax

While browsing through new movies in few platforms, I noticed this one that was released on HBO Go on Saturday which I never heard of. But after reading its very brief synopsis, I was immediately intrigued. So I decided to watch it in the morning before its premiere on HBO channel at 8 PM. OK, I'll go on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Stephanie Patrick (Blake Lively - A Simple Favor, The Age of Adaline etc) life was turned upside down when she lost her family in a plane crash three years earlier and became a drug addict & prostitute. However when she found out that the crash was not accidental, she decided to take revenge on the people responsible.

With the reluctant aid from a former MI6 agent Iain Boyd (Jude Law - Captain MarvelKing Arthur: Legend of the Sword etc), Stephanie trained herself to be ready and later resumed the identity of a contract killer. She also met a former CIA agent Marc Serra (Sterling K. Brown - The Angry Birds Movie 2Hotel Artemis etc) who would become sort of her liason.

And what would happen to Stephanie? Find them all in this action thriller movie.

End of Brief Story Line

I always have a soft spot for movies that have revenge element. There was always a satisfying feeling when seeing the really bad guys who had ruined the life of the lead character got what they deserved. Perhaps this had been embedded in my mind since young age when I used to watch Chinese Kung Fu movies. That's why when there was a revenge movie/series, I would always give it a try.

Now this movie might not have the totally exact formula (the hero's life was ruined but indirectly due to the result of villains' action), however the rest was the same. The story telling in the early part was a bit too slow for my taste. It was not until almost half way that the movie became more interesting. The action sequence was pretty standard, but there was 1 scene that I thought was awesome relating to the car chase. What I did not really like was it felt a bit of anti climax in the end, especially with a good enough build up.

For a movie that had 1 hour 45 minutes, it felt a bit too long especially because of the slow first half. There was no mid or post end credit scene. It was a bit violent and there might be one disturbing scene. I saw in the movie database that the movie had an R rating, though I thought it was not truly full of violence like other films. However, there might be some really violent scenes that were cut, because the duration on HBO was only 1 hour 45 minutes, whereas according to few websites, it was supposed to be 109 minutes. It meant there could have been a potential 4 minutes that were censored.

The lead cast Blake Lively I thought was pretty good in playing this part. She was really convincing as a drug addict who transformed into a killer and still kept her humanity. Her physical appearance was also very good in here (especially in the early part where I could barely recognize her). Jude Law and Sterling K. Brown were OK. The rest of the cast had too little screen time to leave me with any impressions. 

The movie was based on the novel of the same title written by Mark Burnell. I also saw Barbara Broccoli's name as the producer and when I read more details, one of the production company was Eon Productions which produced James Bond movies. It was such a shame though that the movie itself was not successful commercially and got mixed critical review, despite directed by Reed Moreno who had directed movies like Meadowland and few episodes of The Handmaid's Tales series (and even won Emmy Award for it). 

Overall I thought this was a mediocre action thriller movie about revenge. The first half was not fast enough to keep me interested and the climax was not truly satisfying. There were some actions with one awesome car chase scene, but other than that, there was not much that I enjoyed. So if you wish to see some revenge movie, this one might tick the box, though you might not be truly satisfied by the ending.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Saturday, December 5, 2020

Godmothered - Great Idea but Personally did not Feel Magical Enough as Disney Christmas Movie

Yesterday a new movie was released on Disney+ which I was intrigued by the trailer I had seen few days earlier. It seemed like really fun. And was it? Let's find out, shall we?

Brief Story Line

Eleanor (Jillian Bell - Bill & Ted Face the Music, Workaholics TV series etc) was a young fairy godmother in training, who got information that her home, the Motherland might be on the verge of closing and there would be no more fairy godmothers. She wanted to prove that they were still required and thus save her home, so she wanted to grant the wish of a young girl named Mackenzie to live happily ever after.

However, things did not go as planned as when she managed to finally meet Mackenzie, she was already an adult (played by Isla Fisher - Keeping Up with the Joneses, The Great Gatsby etc) and single mother of 2 daughters who were usually being babysit by her sister Paula (Mary Elizabeth Ellis - It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia TV series etc). Eleanor would find that it would be a real challenge to fulfill her "mission" on Mack and trying to set her up with her co-worker Hugh Prince (Santiago Cabrera - Star Trek: Picard, Heroes TV series etc).