G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra

This toy-based origins flick carries on in the vein of another Hasbro money-spinner, Transformers. Unfortunately, G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra may just make your brain quit your skull in disgust at another unbelievable combination of wooden acting, cheesy one-liners, and an eyebrow-raising plot line.

G.I. Joe’s traditional “Real American Hero” image has been watered-down in light of the generally unfavourable attitude towards Americans and their military. It's now a multinational branch of NATO, and the name itself is now an acronym for Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity. GIJOE are fighting against Cobra, an evil organisation headed by a Scottish arms dealer, and it’s a battle for these powerful self-replicating warheads called nano-bots.

We're not gonna lie, you don't watch this kind of film for the mind-blowing plot or Oscar-winning acting. This is a typical shoot-'em-up action flick. Just sit back and be inundated by explosion after ear-splitting explosion as badass advanced military weapons dispatch of the bad guys in sweet CG fashion and chicks in latex suits remind you why you parted with your RM11 in the first place.

It’s too bad that director Stephen Sommers (behind snore fests like B-grade horror film Deep Rising, Van Helsing and all The Mummy movies) had his hands on this project. However, if you’re on the verge of peeing your pants at the thought of awesome explosions and serious manliness, G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra isn’t a total loss, nor is it going to have you walking out of the theatre satisfied.

Cast Channing Tatum, Dennis Quaid, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marlon Wayans, Rachel Nichols, Sienna Miller Director Stephen Sommers Runtime 107 mins

Text Maybritt Rasmussen

This review can also be found over here on KLue's website.

Article taken from KLue Magazine Aug 2009, Issue 130

Up

It’s still rated G, but Up is Pixar’s most mature movie to date. Dealing with topics like death, aging, and shattered dreams, this is a perfectly-crafted animated film that doesn’t patronise kids and will keep adults entertained, the storyline is just that engaging.

Up starts with a quick flashback of 78-year-old balloon salesman Carl Fredricksen’s life, from an adventurous kid to marrying the love of his life, Ellie. We’re not spoiling anything here, but Carl eventually has to deal with his wife’s death and that’s when Up really blasts off into great storytelling.

Ed Asner injects a realistically heart-wrenching sense of unfulfilled desperation into Carl. Embarking on a last-ditch effort to make good on his wife’s lifelong dream of travelling to South America to build a home, Carl straps a bunch of balloons to his house and sets off on the adventure of his life. Meeting a host of hilarious and endearing characters along the way, from an optimistic 8-year-old wilderness explorer named Russell (Jordan Nagai) to a gormless talking dog called Dug (Bob Peterson), Up is a non-stop hoot.

With the combined creative forces of Academy Award-nominated director Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc.), Academy Award-nominated animator, screenwriter, director and voice actor Bob Peterson (Finding Nemo) and multiple award-winning Pixar Animation Studios, there’s a reason why Up was the first animated film to have ever opened the Cannes Film Festival. If you don’t catch this stunning film on the big screen, we guarantee you’ll be kicking yourselves later!

Cast Christopher Plummer, Edward Asner, Jordan Nagai, Bob Peterson Director Bob Peterson, Pete Docter Runtime 96 mins

This review can also be found over here on KLue's website.

Article taken from KLue Magazine Aug 2009, Issue 130

Text Maybritt Rasmussen

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

We’ve been shivering in anticipation for this one, the sixth and penultimate adaptation. Before we get ahead of ourselves, we’re just gonna lay it out for you right now: this movie kicks all the previous Potter flicks in the keister.

As Harry Potter and gang mature, it’s only natural that the material deepens and gets a little racier (we like!). We’re glad that Director David Yates didn’t tone down the wand-brandishing violence just for the whelps in the audience. The film's atmosphere is darker and more ominous as Lord Voldemort’s back-story is revealed.

You almost feel sorry for old Voldemort. He just can’t catch a break. As the troubled young Tom Marvolo Riddle, he's suffered the-makings-of-serial-killer childhood, he’s a Muggle (non-magical human), half-blood (something that the Nazi-esque Dark Lord clearly despises about himself) and he’s, well, practically noseless. It also doesn’t help that he was conceived under the effects of a love potion (which is supposedly what makes him unable to understand love).

This isn’t a problem for Harry Potter however, who’s fallen for his best friend’s little sister, Ginny Weasley. As school-related drama grows, so does Lord Voldemort’s power and Potter teams up with Professor Dumbledore to uncover the mysteries of Voldemort’s disturbing past in the hopes of discovering the evil wizard’s Achilles’ heel.

Fans of the Harry Potter books and films won’t need any convincing, but Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is arguably the best in the film series to date and deserves a big-screen audience.

Cast Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton Director David Yates Runtime 153 mins

Text Maybritt Rasmussen

This review can also be found over here on KLue's website.

Article taken from KLue Magazine July 2009, Issue 129

Duplicity

Clive Owen, aka The Stuff of Fantasies, is back with regular on-screen companions Julia Roberts and Paul Giamatti. This is Roberts’ first leading role since 2004’s Closer with Owen.

Owen and Roberts are lovers in this quick-witted comedy that’s cleverly disguised as an espionage thriller. MI6’s Ray Koval (Owen) and the CIA’s Claire Stenwick (Roberts) meet, click, and promptly tumble into bed after an American Embassy to-do in Dubai. After Koval wakes up he realises his feisty lover has made off with secret codes he was supposed to deliver—whoops! Years later the pair cross paths again in a war between two rival pharmaceutical corporations over a revolutionary secret product.

Julia Roberts has undoubtedly lost some of her lustre after a string of one-note flicks, but her age is a moot point in Duplicity and this role could spell a comeback, depending on who you ask (those below 18 need not apply). Robert’s sexy, seasoned flair and repartee is more than a match for cool and collected Clive Owen in this romantic spy film. We won’t say anymore because the less you know the better. Guiltlessly hand over that RM11. The ticket price is worth the plot twist alone — promise!

Cast Carrie Preston, Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, Paul Giamatti Director Tony Gilroy Runtime 125 mins

Text Maybritt Rasmussen

This review can also be found over here on KLue's website.

Article taken from KLue Magazine July 2009, Issue 129

Ice Age 3

The irresistible computer-animated menagerie of Manny, Sid, Diego, Ellie and Scrat are back for the third installment of the Ice Age series. Produced by Blue Sky Studios, the same animation studio behind the previous Ice Age films as well as Robots (2005) and Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! (2008), Ice Age 3 doesn’t miss a beat.

After the events of Ice Age: The Meltdown, the relationships between the unlikely friends change. Diego the sabre-toothed tiger (Denis Leary) is fed up with being treated like a “house cat.” Scrat, the bumbling sabre-toothed squirrel, finally shows interest in something other than his acorn when the foxy Scratte steals his attention away. Manny, voiced by comedian Ray Romano, and his outspoken girlfriend Ellie (Queen Latifah) await the birth of their first mini-mammoth.

The typically neurotic Manny gets even more wired as his nesting instinct go into overdrive. Ever-lisping Sid the ground sloth (John Leguizamo) also hopes to settle down and start a family of his own and he pilfers a clutch of eggs from an pristine tropical paradise to do so. Soon, Sid is the “mama” of an adorable brood of T-Rexes. It gets worse for Sid when his reptilian babies start chowing down on some hapless mammals. This awesome prehistoric romp gets two opposable thumbs up!

Cast Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, Queen Latifah, Ray Romano Director Carlos Saldanha

Text Maybritt Rasmussen

This review can also be found over here on KLue's website.

Article taken from KLue Magazine July 2009, Issue 129

Blood: The Last Vampire

Finally, a sword-wielding vampire halfling that’s not part of the flogged-to-death Blade universe. Welsey Snipes is going to be pissed because the fresh-faced Korean starlet Gianna Jun, AKA Jeon Ji-hyun of My Sassy Girl fame, kicks Blade to the curb with her foe-whacking samurai skills. As a grumpy vampire hunter, Saya’s also hotter and she doesn’t resort to shooting up drugs to quell her bloodlust.

Born to a human father and a vampire mother, Saya looks like a pretty normal 17-year-old girl but she’s a self-hating 400-year old loner hell-bent on ridding the world of pesky vampires! An American military base in post-WWII Tokyo is plagued by an infestation of vampires and Saya is sent by the mysterious organisation Red Shield to exterminate the blood-sucking vermin.

Between slaughtering the undead inhabitants of the base in a series of elaborate showdowns, Saya begins her path to humanity when she form her first human friendship in centuries with the daughter of the military base’s general. When her superhuman powers had seemed her only means to defeat Onigen, the evil matriarch of all vampires, Saya learns that her newfound ability for human connection may be her greatest power.

Based on the popular Production I.G anime film from 2000 of the same name, Blood: The Last Vampire is produced by Academy-Award nominee Bill Kong (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Curse of the Golden Flower) and directed by noted French commercial and music video director Chris Nahon (Kiss of the Dragon, Empire of Wolves). This anime-inspired flick is entirely in English so you won’t have to squint quizzically at lost-in-translation subtitles and miss all the gory on-screen carnage! Blood: The Last Vampire gets our fang-gnashing approval for its R-rated “strong, bloody stylised violence.”

Cast Allison Miller, Gianna Jun, JJ Field, Koyuki, Liam Cunningham, Masiela Lusha, Yasuaki Kurata Director Chris Nahon Runtime 89 mins

Text Maybritt Rasmussen

This review can also be found over here on KLue's website.

Article taken from KLue Magazine June 2009, Issue 128

The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

Matthew McConaughey is back with his speciality: romantic comedy. McConaughey plays Connor Mead, a successful photographer and womaniser who’s crummy at love and totally unable to commit to a serious relationship. He’s been enjoying a good womanising run for years but things are about to change (duh).

Connor’s redemption comes in the form of adorably dimpled Jennifer Garner, who plays wholesome Jenny Perotti, Connor’s old flame. In the vein of Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol, Connor is visited by the The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, (Emma Stone), Present (Noureen DeWulf) and Future (Amanda Walsh) at a momentous event — the wedding of his younger brother, played by Breckin Meyer.

At this turning point, the three ghosts take the womaniser on a requisite journey through his abysmal romantic history to awaken his moral sensitivity. About time, too. Feminists may cringe at this piece of celluloid fluff, but at least Connor morphs into a sensitive, commitment-hungry butterfly in the end, right?

From the director of such lighthearted romps as Freaky Friday and Mean Girls, the script for The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past fell into the right hands. Waters knows exactly who the audience is for his latest flick — women. Girlfriends are going to be heading to cinemas in droves for The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and hapless boyfriends are certain to be dragged along whether they like it or not. This romantic comedy is unavoidable so submit to the inevitable and set aside that RM11.

Cast Breckin Meyer, Emma Stone, Jennifer Garner, Lacey Chabert, Matthew McConaughey, Michael Douglas Director Mark Waters Runtime 100 mins

Text Maybritt Rasmussen

This review is also found here on KLue's website.

Article taken from KLue Magazine May 2009, Issue 127