TERMINATOR SALVATION

ENGLISH - (U) - 28 May 2009 - Sci-Fi/Action/Adventure
Distributor: Sony Pictures (Columbia)
Running time: about 115 mins.
Director: Joseph "McG" McGinty Nichol
Producers: Derek Anderson, Victor Kubicek, Jeffrey Silver, Moritz Borman
Writers: John Brancato, Michael Ferris (Screenplay); James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd (Characters)
Casts: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Anton Yelchin, Moon Bloodgood, Bryce Dallas Howard, Common, Jadagrace Berry, Helena Bonham Carter
Plot: Set in 2018, the film focuses on the original war between the human race and the Terminator computer network, Skynet. After destroying almost the entire human race on Earth in a nuclear holocaust, a group of survivors led by John Connor stands up to the war and together they struggle to keep those machines at bay and from completely wiping away the human race.

THE VERDICT:

Green Tea says:

WARNING FOR SPOILER! Terminator Salvation is distancing itself from what we always knew about Terminator created by James Cameron some 25 years ago. The first trilogy of three film features of the Terminator with Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the fourth film been both a prequel and sequel have lost all those Terminator elements you have been growing up watching.

Set in the year 2018, John Connor (played by Christian Bale) is leading a small fraction of unit under the human Resistance army against the robots and artificial ontelligence under the legion of Skynets. He was on his quest to search for a civilian called Kyle Reese (by Anton Yelchin), his father from the future as seen in T1, to protect him so that the whole existence will be maintained and to destroy Skynets base in San Francisco. Meanwhile, a peculiar and mystery convicts named Marcus Wright (by Sam Worthington) came out of no where and he will find out that he is the key that will change and alters the whole existence.

As I said earlier, the story in this fourth flick deviates so much and it is no longer a robot from the future-returning to the past to eliminate John Connor compared to the earlier versions. This movie is been a rejuvenation idea of termination and it tells the story after a long distance gap between T3 and 2018 setting of the story. Now that the Judgement Day has happened and the world is not in post-apocalypse. What really matters here is there is no possible inkage between T3 and T4 due to huge gap in here. Because of this fresh story, there is no way to compare this flick and the earlier one.

McG did a bold move by time setting a bit further leaving out the story on how young teenage John Connor struggle to outcast his low esteem to eventually becoming a leader. Not only that, McG's gamble of bringing in Marcus Wright seems paid off, while the role of Marcus Wright is a very significant, dark and mysterious.

Time travelling is no longer an essential plot of the movie. Simply because, in the past Terminators, we have robots traveled back into younger days of John Connor to eliminate him and his mother Sarah Connor. In this movie, all the events happened before any of those robots were sent and T4 is merely to realize all the prediction and making it really happen.

The central line of the story is no longer John Connor. The plot lines are a bit messy at the first 40 minutes and indeed lack of pace. However, anchoring from two different point of views; Kyle Reese with Marcus Wright and John Connor himself, the story manages to move on and at one point it becomes better off. However, the whole point of the story is to tell you how T-800 is made, Marcus Wright is actually a mole and how John Connor saves Kyle Reese and destroy Skynet network in San Francsico. (too much spoiler!!)

As I mentioned earlier, it is no longer John Connor's movie. Christian Bale is excellent in portraying the role and he did not reminded me of Batman at least, giving out a solid performance. However, I would have to say, Sam Worthington did even more than a solid acting - he steals it all. His role of conflicting mind and the desperate dire to make a choice make his role interesting - I think McG bringing in this kind of character and making him a mole maybe a little too ambitious but it worths the screenplay. Anton Yelchin is good as well, a young Russian with many more potential and limelights in the future ahead.

T4 suffers something lacking in the piece of cinematography and effects. Weird enough, the cinematography is a bit buzzy and less interesting. However, in a war-torn apocalyptic world, the environment suits well the story line but not groundbreaking anyway. The same as the effects, all robots are just the same typical visualization that we have seen. I don't enjoy T-800 or any of the carrier much, rather MotoTerminator is something interesting to see but yet, it plays less role and sighnificant.

Been a Terminator fan or not, I would recommend it only as another summer actioner that will passable and enjoyed at a moderate level. Expect nothing much and I believe I have to agree with the critics - it lacks the hearts of the originals.

THE RATINGS.....
CAST - 4.0 stars
STORY - 3.0 stars
CINEMATOGRAPHY - 3.5 stars
EFFECTS - 3.5 stars
an overall>> 3.5 stars
GreenTea-O-Meter: 13.8

SHERLOCK HOLMES TRAILER

Last week, the Christmas extravaganza movie in the forms of the famous character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle some century ago, will be of course hitting the cinema this Yule season. Sherlock Holmes, a famous fictional investigator of the Scotland origin will be transformed into a new live action movie adaptation.

First look at the trailer, one word to describe it - AWESOME! Also, it looks more action figured than I first thought. Expect Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, some of the finest actors in the time been to deliver another master piece.

ENJOY

Reno Reviews TERMINATOR SALVATION

ENGLISH - (U) - 28 May 2009 - Sci-Fi/Action/Adventure
Distributor: Sony Pictures (Columbia)
Running time: about 115 mins.
Director: Joseph "McG" McGinty Nichol
Producers: Derek Anderson, Victor Kubicek, Jeffrey Silver, Moritz Borman
Writers: John Brancato, Michael Ferris (Screenplay); James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd (Characters)
Casts: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Anton Yelchin, Moon Bloodgood, Bryce Dallas Howard, Common, Jadagrace Berry, Helena Bonham Carter
Plot: Set in 2018, the film focuses on the original war between the human race and the Terminator computer network, Skynet. After destroying almost the entire human race on Earth in a nuclear holocaust, a group of survivors led by John Connor stands up to the war and together they struggle to keep those machines at bay and from completely wiping away the human race.

THE VERDICT:

Reno Ooi says:

WARNING FOR SPOILER! There's still long time before we can watch Christian Bale as caped crusader again. As a Christian-Bale-fans like me, I really had much anticipation on this movie: Terminator Salvation. The producer company did spends lots of money in promoting this movie, as I can conclude via how we see Terminator Salvation posters everyway, newspapers, roadsides, staircase etc. However, here's the thing: the distributor will be making box office success due to the anticipation BUT they will also get a lots of bad and cruel critics at the end. Let me tell you why.



First of all, you must realise that this is not a very terminator-sense terminator movie. There's no more good and evil terminator go back through time and fight against each other for each own's sake of benefit in future time. This movie simply take the concept of "Judgement Day" and "War between resistance and machines" from the previous prequels, and make it a futuristic war movie. They are things that already mentioned in conversation in prequel. This movie is just "materialize" those conversation content. So, it's more of a war-kind of movie, rather than the cat-and-rat chase among future robots in present world.

Nevertheless, speaking as a war-genre movie, this movie really is a great disappointment. The first 75 minutes of the movie is dull and boring, despite all those fancy kind of terminators models appear in the movie. Ask yourself, why you watch this movie? Mainly because you want to see how John Conner fulfill his destiny to be a resistance leader and finding his teen father. So, who really give a shit about the process of war? Terminator franchise (the previous three) focused on characters, i.e. Sarah Conner, John Conner, T800 etc. BUT not on a bunch of human fighting against a bunch of robots! Introduction of many fancy robots is not gonna compensate for the failure of the movie. Make it easy to imagine like this: we enjoy that there's only one Arnold (T800) in the movie, but we won't enjoy much when there's a bunch of Arnolds in the movie. Same things go for other robots.

Most of the scene in the movie are very dark with destroyed buildings and wrecked cars here and there. Back in time, we enjoy the previous movie because we like the robots (in human forms) fighting in the background that very close to our real life. But, sorry that in fourth movie, it takes place and occur in time that we feel so distance and hence hard to appreciate it. I praised McG for his bold move, but he really screwed up the franchise anyway. This movie is definitely lacking the very original terminator-sense and it will kill hearts of many Terminator fans.

Enough for the background of the story. In term of the story-line wise, only the last part of the movie which is really exciting because we see John Conner destroying Skynet and also (spoiler!) T800, i.e. Arnold is coming back (although just briefly)! However, I cannot accept the explanation that Marcus Wright is a mole-robot. This is just stupid because, if Skynet can already make this advanced kind of infiltrating-model robots, why they still send those older models back through time to terminate young John Conner? It just doesn't make sense.

In term of acting-wise, everyone in the movie play their part well. Christian Bale being heroic (as always) and Sam Washington being torn apart between human and robot identity. They are good actors. After giving some thoughs, however, I still feel that adding this Marcus Wright character is a bad move. People love John Conner since many years ago, and the character would be much success if it just focuses on him. Introduction of this Marcus character is killing off the chance of better involvement of the John character. You don't put two main heroes in one movie, especially when one of them is already very influencial for ages.

To sum up, this is gonna be a great disappointment for Terminator-fans. The only way to get through this is be patient throughout the first 75 minutes and at the end you'll get to see what you want: John Conner destroy the Skynet base! However, when you walk out from cinema, please mourn that Terminator Salvation cannot salvage the Terminator...

THE RATINGS.....
CAST - 4.0 stars
STORY - 2.0 stars
CINEMATOGRAPHY - 3.5 stars
EFFECTS - 3.5 stars
an overall>> 3.0 stars
GreenTea-O-Meter: 13.0

Reno Reviews NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN

ENGLISH - (PG13) - 21 May 2009 - Comedy/Family/Adventure
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Running time: about 105 mins.
Director: Shawn Levy
Producers: Shawn Levy, Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan
Writers: Thomas Lennon (Screenplay); Robert Ben Garant (Story), Milan Trenc (Book)
Casts: Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson, Hank Azaria, Christopher Guest, Robin Williams
Plot: Ben Stiller returns to the role of the unfortunate night watchman, Larry Daley who continues to encounter the living and breathing museum exhibits. This adventure takes the action to Washington D.C., where things at the Smithsonian aren't quite as quiet as one might think.

THE VERDICT:

Reno Ooi says:

WARNING FOR SPOILER! Honestly, I pretty enjoyed this movie and regretted that I never watched the prequesl of "Night at the Museum 2".

I enjoyed the movie because the concept and the story of the movie was fresh to me. I was like a kid in cinema when watching it and can't wait for the night to come so that everything in the museum came to alive. Although at first I didn't know a thing about the tablet, which was quite important in the story, but I can guess what's it for later as the story goes by. So, you don't really need to watch the prequel in order to understand it. You can guess and understand those things through conversation if you pay attention what those characters are talking about. 20 minutes after the story starts, you can begin to forget to mind about your lack of knowing in the prequel, and start enjoy it.

However, I must admit that most idea in the movie are not fresh for those who watched the prequel before. Museum exhibition coming to live and making jokes about history subject...and also Ben Stiller's kind of humour. Anyway, 3 years is a long time and some reviewing (not refreshing) of the same kind of funny stuff is not really a bad thing after all. You may think that this sequel cannot succeed the prequel. But, why don't treat both as one continuation of a story? They are the same all. Try don't to compare them and there are still a lots of fun to discover.

For first time viewer of Night at the Museum like me, I'm kinda regret that I didn't watch the prequel. If I watched the prequel, I think I can appreciate the relationship (friendship?) between Larry and those exhibits more. The effort of Larry showed in the movie -- how he tried to help his exhibit friends -- is a continuation of the relationship he built with those exhibits in the prequel. If I had the chance to watch the prequel, I'll watch it -- hope you can get this feeling as well after watching this sequel.

The humour in the movie does work almost all the time. Ben Stiller is indeed a good comedy actor and so are other characters in the movie. The conversations are full of sarcasm, and you don't need being a good history student or an American to understand it. Forget about other things else, (as Bernard said, leave your brain at home) you can laugh throughout the movie and it's the reason why you spend money on a comedy, right?

Besides, you can also learn historical stuff from the movie as well, e.g.Napoleon hated people talking about his height etc. Those history trivia are interesting to know and the way the movie protray it, I would say very good. The movie did the same thing as other museums in the world are built -- to make people love history. Well, although I'm not very sure about accuracy of some stuff inside, but just watching historical people from all around the world gathered and fight in this modern world is undeniably interesting. Pharoah + Napoleon + Ivan + American Mafia vs. Cowboys + Romans + modern American -- that's fun to watch those people from different background and time fight and express themselves in different cultural ways.

In a word, it is a movie you can watch alone to cheer you up when you are down, or you can watch together with friends and family. Either way, you pay money and you get the laughter you want. "Night at the Museum 2" is a movie that worth to watch and you won't regret it.

THE RATINGS.....
CAST - 4.0 stars
STORY - 3.5 stars
CINEMATOGRAPHY - 3.5 stars
EFFECTS - 3.5 stars
an overall>> 3.5 stars
GreenTea-O-Meter: 14.5

Reno Reviews BATTLE FOR TERRA

ENGLISH - (PG13) - 14 May 2009 - Sci-Fi/Animation
Distributor: LionsGate
Running time: about 85 mins.
Director: Aristomenis Tsirbas
Producers: Ryan Colucci, Keith Calder
Writers: Evan Spiliotopoulus (Screenplay); Aristomenis Tsirbas (Story)
Casts: Brian Cox, James Garner, Evan Rachel Wood, Justin Long, Dennis Quaid, Amanda Peet, Luke Wilson, Chris Evan
Plot: When the peace-loving inhabitants of planet Terra come under attack from the last surviving members of humanity adrift in an aging spaceship, the stage is set for an all-out war between the two races for control of the planet. A rebellious young Terrian, Mala (Evan Rachel Wood) together with an injured human pilot, Jim (Luke Wilson) must somehow convince their leaders that war is not the answer and help the two races coexist before it's too late.

THE VERDICT:

Reno Ooi says:

WARNING FOR SPOILER! Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Star Trek, Terminator Salvation - these sci-fi movies are dominating top on the list of movies of the year. Well, sci-fi movies are now also on the bottom of the list as well. I proudly present to you: Battle for Terra. I find this first official review of mine to "GreenTeaMovie" quite easy, because this movie is easily concluded in one word - SUCKS and I have to say that I leave the cinema in great disappointment.

The good news is the idea of the story is good - Human have no place to live, they have to destroy other species on the planet called Terra to build a new colonization. But, one human had conflict in doing so because he owed his life to a Terranian (the species living on Terra). So, in the end, the human sacrificed himself by turning against his own kind and ended the war between Terra and human. It sounds heroic, and indeed heroism is the only good thing that was portrayed well in the movie.



If you get really frustrated when watching the movie, take a moment and close our eyes, listen to the music. The background music and theme music from the music is still OK. It's soundtrack is fine, and I think you'll enjoy the music as well and calm down your negative feeling for the movie.

Here's the bad news. The movie is opened by introducing the Terranians - a species looked like earthworm, but with hands, and can fly. Good creation...but not so good because everyone looked the same except the different colour clothes they are wearing. I find it hard to distinguish the main Terranian characters because they just look all the same! (I had to differentiate them by their voices). The problem is even imminent when every men looks almost the same! Are Homo sapiens lacking of genetic variation as well? Obviously the people behind this movie should learn more about creating different characters before wasting money producing this movie. I would advice them to look among themselves and realize that physical appearance variations exist among human beings, even between siblings!

The dialogue in the movie is just too childish! I think even a normal 7-year-old kid will find the lines been immature. More over, try this, Terranians and human beings speak different language - acceptable. But, there's one scene which I think is one of the stupidest scene in the movie:

TERRANIAN: You speak our language! (in amazed look)
HUMAN ROBOT: Yes, I do. Because I'm programmed to speak different language.
TERRANIAN: Teach me! (begging)
HUMAN ROBOT: Okay. (then shooting laser into the teranian's eyes)
TERRANIAN: Wow! I feel so many words in my head...(wondering a moment) what language I'm speaking? I can speak your language! (looked excited)

Thirdly, about the illogical story line in the movie. You don't need a Spock's Vulcan mind of "logic/illogic" kind of thinking to watch a sci-fi movie. I can accept the alternate universe in Star Trek, but I cannot accept the concept that combustion can occur under circumstances without oxygen! One scene we watched that the heroic human asphyxiated and cannot breath in Terra because of lacking of oxygen, the next scene of war you can see fire and combustion happening here and there in Terra.

And there's one more scene when the human robot illustrate how oxygen looks like to a Terranian... a tri-atom particle. I bet even a Chemistry E student knows that oxygen is O2 and it is made up of two atoms! This is only the beginning and there are just too much scene in the movie where they tend to put science in the movie but they convey it in the wrong way.

Enough say for this "Battle of Terra". You need a higher level of clearance of any logical sense in your mind when watching this movie. Pretend yourself as a child. Pretend that you don't know anything about oxygen. Pretend that all Teranians are speaking English, but they are not speaking English. However, keep this in mind: if you bring any kid along to watch this movie, please correct the facts in the movie after cinema because you don't want the kid to fail his or her Science subject.

THE RATINGS.....
CAST - 1.0 stars
STORY - 1.5 stars
CINEMATOGRAPHY - 2.5 stars
EFFECTS - 2.5 stars
an overall>> 1.5 stars
GreenTea-O-Meter: 6.6

SIMPLE ANNOUNCEMENT FROM ME

Hey Guys,

Greeting from Green Tea himself,

Now, it has been years that I have been searching for people like me that loves movie and not only that, loving movie till the inner sense and mind tells you that this movie is worth and deserving your every cents you spend or may asking you to simply avoid it. At Green Tea Circle, the author aims to tell, to inform and to share what he knew and what he loved or hated to the readers.

Now, I would like to introduce to you Green Tea Movie's new columnist. His name is Reno Ooi and like me, we share similar interest and passion about movie. Therefore, I let him use this blog for him to express his own opinion and to share his word of thought about movies that we have watched. Please do note, our opinions and reviews are independent to ourselves and we try not to be biased at the same time.

Any opinion can be sent to me via my e-mail or facebook account like what Reno did. Thus, Green Tea would like to thank Reno for his contribution. 

His first contributions will be up soon. So, guys stay tune for his movie review on 3D animation - Battle of Terra, soon!!

Yours,

GREEN TEA BERN

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE Of SMITHSONIAN

ENGLISH - (PG13) - 21 May 2009 - Comedy/Family/Adventure
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Running time: about 105 mins.
Director: Shawn Levy
Producers: Shawn Levy, Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan
Writers: Thomas Lennon (Screenplay); Robert Ben Garant (Story), Milan Trenc (Book)
Casts: Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson, Hank Azaria, Christopher Guest, Robin Williams
Plot: Ben Stiller returns to the role of the unfortunate night watchman, Larry Daley who continues to encounter the living and breathing museum exhibits. This adventure takes the action to Washington D.C., where things at the Smithsonian aren't quite as quiet as one might think.

THE VERDICT:

Green Tea says:

WARNING FOR SPOILER! 3 years ago, it did entertained us when the first film about the museum came alive was released, captivating the humour, originality and fantastic adventure. However, with silly plot lines and one can easily tells you to leave your brain at home while watching this. Again, three years later, history do repeat.

The sequel to the highly entertained family adventure started with the brand new Larry Daley which has forged a fortune from his venture outside the usual night guard we have seen. However, he later found out that most of the artifacts and exhibit items will be locked forever, send away to the Smithsonian Institute due to renovation and upgrade work in the Museum of Natural History. Never the less, begins a new chapter of adventure for some of this items when it was revealed that the Akmenrah tablet was brought into the Smithsonian as well, thus making everything there alive.



This new adventure has again produce nothing new and fresh idea for more octane entertainment. The story is so-so, and again does not need any explaination nor continuation to fill the story well. You may notice some events in the movie were left untouched later - for example Larry's son role in helping his father, Larry's venture company, were there no night guards in the complex and others. To make it worst, these stories became somehow incomplete, irrelevant and illogical.

The plot of the new adventure in Smithsonian is again pointless and it borrows too much elements from the first movie. What you have watched in the first movie also comes back into the second one, thus making the story line yet again predictable.

However, even the dumbest can tell that the humour is somehow lack in explosive as the first one. Fortunately, laughter is always something that we tend to treat it as the way it is, so comedy is kind of an easy sell to the audience, no matter how stupid or lame it is, people still loves it. I personally find that the comedy is still good but of course, not explosive.

The cast is huge and variety but it is to pin point that Amy Adams, Hank Azaria and Ricky Gervais has did well. Enchantingly, Amy Adams as Amelia Eackhart did well to bring some life to the movie. Hank Azaria is also one dude that brings humour into play that well. Been sarcastic, he plays the triple role of Kahmunrah, Abraham Lincoln and The Thinker. He did them well and his mocking stylish comedic line delivered well.

The effects are somehow stunning and well executed. The general appearance and perception are well done to illustrate a maniac situation. However, no matter how good the effects and Amy Adams is, the movie still suffers a hiccup in story board, and again you no need to bring your brain to watch this. It was not that bad for a movie at such, just been another round of sarcastic and lame humours.

THE RATINGS.....
CAST - 3.5 stars
STORY - 2.5 stars
CINEMATOGRAPHY - 4.0 stars
EFFECTS - 4.5 stars
an overall>> 3.5 stars
GreenTea-O-Meter: 13.3

THE UNINVITED

ENGLISH - (18PL) - 23 April 2009 - Horror
Distributor: Dreamworks/Paramount Pictures
Running time: about 87 mins.
Director: Charles and Thomas Guard
Producers: Michael Grillo, Ivan Reitman, Tom Pollock, Walter F. Parkes, Laurie McDonald, Riyoko Tanaka
Writers: Craig Rosenberg, Doug Miro, Carlo Bernard, Kim Jee-Woon
Casts: Emily Browning, Arielle Kebbel, Elizabeth Banks, David Strathairn, Maya Massar
Plot: Teenage sisters Anna and Alex Rydell return home after a stint in a mental hospital, though their recovery is jeopardised by their cruel stepmother, an aloof father, and the presence of a ghost in their home. Is the ghost a figment of their frail mental state, or is it really the ghost of their late mother trying to reach to them? Based on the Korean horror film, "Tale of Two Sisters".

THE VERDICT:

Green Tea says:

WARNING SPOILER! The Asian invasion of horror movies into Hollywood create a such undeniable and underwhelming scenario. The streak continues with another Korean adaptation of the ever famed The Tale Of Two Sisters back in the year of 2003. Now, The Uninvited another mediocre presentation on how American treat these artworks from the East.

The remake of the Korean version; Anna (played by lovable Emily Browning) has a dark and sad history, ended up been in depression following the death of her beloved terminally ill mother in a freak accident. After months of therapy, she is back to her home with so many memories of the past. Together with her sister Alex (hot candy Arielle Kebbel), they found out something intriguing about their nanny, a nurse whom responsible of taking care of their mother but somehow was seen seducing their father. Anna and Alex therefore will be in search if Rachel, their nanny did involve in the accident.

In a horror movie, at such custom, we should expect a twist and scary moment to haunt the audience. For The Uninvited, both works but somehow they only produce a mediocre results, not that bad and not that good either.

The good thing is that the story line is clear and very easily digested. It runs down well as the plot stay focus about a rebelious teenager to her father's new girlfriend. The plot also gives you a sense of narcotic but too bad, the problem comes when it try to twist the story. Predictable from the first 30 minutes of the story; lack of energectic and stylish like its original and the atmosphere of horror has just lost easily while translation. There are not enough of horror nor suspense to really keep you on the seat.

Emily Browning, a rising Aussie girl that have created sensational performance. She is competent, well-act and her eye-candy look may not suggest that she is actually 20. Been too sweet gives an advantage of tricking the audience for her innocence, non violence, and heart-melting personas. Arielle Kebbel provides more candy to the eye while the rest of the casts are solid but still passable.

The effects are not as stylish as it seems. Talking about elegance, the cinematography however is great. If you want more sense of non-horror and just in case to tell you, I watched this flick only because of Emily Browning. So plan yourself if you want to watch this in cinema or maybe in DVD soon, my advise, try to enjoy!!

THE RATINGS.....
CAST - 3.5 stars
STORY - 3.0 stars
CINEMATOGRAPHY - 3.0 stars
EFFECTS - 3.5 stars
an overall>> 3.0 stars
GreenTea-O-Meter: 12.9

ANGELS AND DEMONS

ENGLISH - (18PL) - 14 May 2009 - Thriller/Mystery
Distributor: Sony Pictures (Columbia)
Running time: about 138 mins.
Director: Ron Howard
Producers: Brian Grazer, John Calley
Writers: David Koepp, Akiva Goldsman (screenplay), Dan Brown (novel)
Casts: Ton Hanks, Ayelet Zurer, Ewan McGregor, Stellan Skarsgard, Pierfrancesco Favino, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Armin Mueller-Stahl
Plot: Adapted from the novel "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown, the film follows the story of Robert Langdon, a well-known Harvard symbologist investigating a murder victim, branded with the Illuminati ambigram. Following his investigation, he soon discovers that a cult group is on a trail to murder four cardinals and destroy the St. Peter's Basilica during a papal gathering.

THE VERDICT:

Green Tea says:

WARNING SPOILER! Remembering the bad hair day, bad dialogue and slow pace from "The Da Vinci Code" back in the year 2006 was an agony, a bittersweet for people who have read the book to swallow for. Set aside the bad memories, took a new one and I'm sure this works better than the purpotedly prequel.

If you are nowhere familiar, the film serves as a sequeal to the 2006 controversial The Da Vinci Code although in reality the timeline of the novel is actually a prequel. Smart moves, there is no point going backward again while the production takes a bold move to beautify the movie in every aspect as possible - in which they did. It is a simple manicure treatment and it somehow manage to generate some faith that this one will not be as sloppy and heartbreaking as the first one.



Robert Langdon, the central Harvard symbologist (again played by Tom Hanks) were summoned by the Vatican Papacy to investigate the kidnap of four cardinal in favour of replacing a sudden death pope. In the mean time, an antimatter technology was stolen by a group of secret society with intention to destroy the Catholic Church over some centuries old revenges, with the brotherhood aiming for a resurgence rise from its underworld cult. With puzzles in front, can Langdon decipher the mystery one by one, leading to another extraordinary discovery?

Yes, the story and plot line works well this time. The intergrated plotline features more landmark cultural and historical that dated back into the Roman empire and cults of the early Churches. Audience will be embarked in yet another breath-taking trip of puzzles and clues across several locations in Rome. Great, with the same reimagination and excellent touch on the details, the movie did well in enticing a whole new experience particularly since this movie can be enjoyed in a digital format in selected cinemas in Malaysia. I watched it in digital and I have to say, it's different.

The plots are much faster in pace, so forget about those almost fall asleep moments when watching The Da Vinci Code once. No more sluggish and sloppy embodied dialogue, this time it is much straight forward and more towards common sense. Seriously this time taking a science physic lesson collides it with some religious and thought challenging, you get an explosive lesson of mind challenge. Although the fast pace, you still have time to absorb and digest material, no worry!

However, mind you, the clues and puzzles featured may actually makes you clueless and I don't think it will be easy for you to understand the whole idea (especialy if you have never read the book before) if you do not get the general pictures, imagine and some background knowledges from the novel. Do pick up the novel before or after watching the movie to understand more and I believe it helps!! I believe there is no way for the screen writing to be altered to allow easier understanding because you may not want the essence story been ruined.

Tom Hanks with no bad hair day, is not it awesome? This time no more Nicolas Cage-type of weird hair-do rather the pleasant looking character fits what the novel had described him as. Tom Hanks once again proved he is a charismatic feature in the movie. Ayalat Zurer was however a bit stony but she has her own altitude, different but more striking than previously Audrey Tautou. Somehow, putting Ewan McGregor as one hot priest is making a divident. Ewan is another hot property that shine throughout the movie and making himself noticable. Critics just could not find other supporting roles any benefits at all - criticizing that they are just another bunch of idiots who know nothing and Tom Hanks single-handly did it all.

The special effects and CGIs are just breath-taking, needless to say. This movie is just great but maybe it still easily been one of the top movie so far. It still can't do anywhere near JJ Abrams' Star Trek but it has its own styles and execution. Do not worry so much about the controversial religious talk in here, it is extremely minimal and less offensive.

THE RATINGS.....
CAST - 3.5 stars
STORY - 4.0 stars
CINEMATOGRAPHY - 4.5 stars
EFFECTS - 4.0 stars
an overall>> 4.0 stars
GreenTea-O-Meter: 15.7

PASSENGERS

ENGLISH - (PG13) - 16 April 2009 - Thriller/Mystery/Horror
Distributor: TriStar
Running time: about 88 mins.
Director: Rodrigo Garcia
Producers: Joseph Drake
Writers: Ronnie Christensen
Casts: Anne Hathaway, Patrick Wilson, Clea DuVall, David Morse, Dianne Wiest
Plot: Psychotherapist Claire Summers (Hathaway) is called upon to treat a group of five survivors of a recent plane crash. One of the survivors, Eric (Wilson), exhibits symptoms that suggest he is disguising his true feelings about the crash by making major life changes. As Claire and Eric grow closer, Claire's patients begin to disappear. She comes to believe that the airline is targeting them to prevent fears about a mechanical failure from spreading. Claire visits her estranged sister after Eric suggests that she make peace with her.

THE VERDICT:

Green Tea says:

WARNING SPOILER! This thriller is hard to be classified as one. Imagine you are a plane crash survivor and you learn to deal with post-traumatic stress, fears for seeing people dead, and pressures. Everyone knows it is hard and it was translated into this movie, somehow ended up been pathetic.

The movie tells about Claire Summers (played by Anne Hathaway), a psychotherapist called upon to treat a group of five survivors of a recent plane crash. Out of the five, Eric (played by Patrick Wilson) is showing the signs of bipolarism and his tendency to hide his real feelings about the crash. Claire decided to take the matter deeper by investigating the truth behind the crashes. One thing she does not know, the group of five is mysteriously missing one by one.



The problem with this movie is that it does not have enough suspense and thrill factor to be considered as one. Probably because it does not have action elements on and it rely too much on the different shades of realism and fantasy. Tuning in the first half, it was rather lambasted and bored. The first half serves nothing but the romantic and awkward characters around the show kind of cocktails. Thus the mystery and thriller are yet not to be found.

Then comes the second half, I would said more alive and more energetic. The build up plot is too slow and it peaks at very late of the show. I think the final 10 minutes are something to be remembered out of the whole 89 minutes of run time - with climatic, reasons and explaination coming all in a single hand.

Unfortunately, the movie misfire and it has some M. Night Shyamalan's style of twisting here and there but these days, M Night Shyamalan's type is getting no where in the audience's heart anymore. This lead to one point for everyone to ponder carefully, the problem came from the lack of gel, inconsistency and lowly screenplay. I thought the twist was dumb and does not make any logical sense - thus challenging my insanity, logical perception and my patience while watching it.

I think all the actors have give out a great characterization. The movie has a mild characterization building and it was done in a slow manner. The cast esemble of Anne Hathaway, Patrick Wilson (the guy who played Nite Owl II in Watchmen), David Morse (the psychokiller in Disturbia), Dianne Wiest (Academy Award winner) shows you that these talented stars did form a big star power for the movie. They did brilliant but why do they get themselves in this retarded movie?

Still, this is just another passable movie and only watch when you feel you need a fresh air for a lower state of mind. Too bad, some great talents are wasted with a pointless direction of the screenplay - otherwise, this should be a promising psychological thriller type of movie.

THE RATINGS.....
CAST - 3.0 stars
STORY - 2.0 stars
CINEMATOGRAPHY - 3.0 stars
EFFECTS - 3.0 stars
an overall>> 2.5 stars
GreenTea-O-Meter: 10.4

12 ROUNDS

ENGLISH - (18SG) - 26 March 2009 - Action
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Running time: about 108 mins.
Director: Renny Harlin
Producers: Becki Cross Trujillo, Mark Gordon, Renny Harlin, Mike Lake, Josh McLaughlin, Vince McMahon
Writers: Daniel Kunka
Casts: John Cena, Ashley Scott, Steve Harris, Gonzalo Menendez, Adrian Gillen, Brian J White
Plot: When New Orleans Police Detective Danny Fisher stops a brilliant thief from getting away with a multi-million-dollar heist, the thief's girlfriend is accidentally killed. After escaping from prison, the criminal mastermind enacts his revenge, taunting the cop with a series of near-impossible puzzles and tasks - 12 rounds - that Baxter must somehow complete to save the life of his own fiancee.

THE VERDICT:

Green Tea says:

WARNING SPOILER! This is not the first time WWE stars get involved in some movies. So far until today, only Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson made it big, in fact he is big and more outstanding than the others. With John Cena, another famous wrestler joining the feat, no much I can say about it.

The movie is all about Det. Danny Fisher (played by Cena himself) been dragged into a game of 12 rounds by Miles Jackson, a smart terrorist (Steve Harris) that have plans to use him and his fiancee to deploy an orchestra of plan to seize million of dollars from a facility. Besides using it as a ploy, Miles intended to redeem a revenge over Fisher after Fisher indirectly caused the death of his girlfriend a year back. Can Fisher outdo all 12 rounds in order to save his fiancee and to stop Miles' evil plan?



This movie is an action-packed film with a lot of outstanding action sequences that you will awed off. Car crashes, chases from one street to another, elevator ploy and so much more, starting from the beginning till the end, the audience will be continue to sit still and enjoy them all. This movie started with an intelligence play that designate the plot afterward. It is therefore, very straight forward story and thus there is nothing much to drag about. However, been only actions are not enough as none of them can be suited as a very memorable one.

The plot itself is interesting, using the action packed with an elements of 12 rounds of interesting "games" created by a very cautious, cunning, opportunist and destructive terrorist. Is he The Joker? However, been to straight forward, the movie totally ignored any characterization building and any romantic budding in the story. This is absolutely critical but the story stay to focus on what it is to be - actions.

Acting wise, I suggested that John Cena at the moment to stick back to his wrestling career. He may need to have some acting class before starting a career like Mr Dwayne Johnson. It is bad for me to say this, his performance in the movie is a bit woody and non-stellar. In fact, his girlfriend played by Ashley Scott did better than him. The best is, Steve Harris as the villain stole all the limelight and I think the audience will look at him more than Cena. Steve Harris is a good actor and he did brilliantly in this movie.

Cinematography works were good excpet the camera-styles. The camera is a bit shaky and it did dizzed me off a bit. Otherwise it is still good!! If you are a John Cena's fan, this movie is just for you. I think in general, this movie did mediocrely well and the movie will just be another heavily-action movie to pass on.

THE RATINGS.....
CAST - 3.0 stars
STORY - 3.5 stars
CINEMATOGRAPHY - 3.0 stars
EFFECTS - 3.0 stars
an overall>> 3.0 stars
GreenTea-O-Meter: 12.8