MOVIE RATING: THE BATTLE OF CHINESE NEW YEAR MOVIES

It's still not too late to wish dear readers a happy dragon year. Now that we have been ushering into the ninth day of the Lunar New Year, Green Tea Movie will do something different this time. Look at the title again. Yes, this post is all about movie rating. Instead of having a long review describing what so good or what so bad about a certain movies, please excuse me because of the abundance of movies been watched recently. Forgiven? Thanks. In this first movie rating post, Green Tea Movie will compare the three Lunar New Year (aka Chinese New Year cum 賀歲电影) that were released on the first day of Chinese New Year.

In this post, we will compare between Ah Beng The Movie: Three Wishes, All's Well End's Well 2012 and I Love Hong Kong 2012.

AH BENG THE MOVIE: THREE WISHES (PG13)

Genre: Comedy
Release Date: 19 January 2012
Running Time: 94 minutes
Distributor: Ram Entertainment
Director: Silver
Screenplay: -
Starring: Jack Lim, Gan Mei Yan, Royce Tan

Plot: Everyone in village is preparing to receive the auspicious God Of Fortune on the eve of the Lunar New Year. Come midnight, people of various races impersonate the deity and offer up mandarin oranges as well as lucky numbers in return for a red packet. Despite being poor, Ah Beng's father still hands up all the money he has to the God Of Fortune. Turns out he has hit the jackpot and the deity is for real. Just like a genie, the deity grants him three wishes.

Review: Last year, the filmmakers produced one of the supposedly heartwarming movie that touches the heart and the theme about family but 'Great Day' disappointed by being too illogical and out of touch. Realizing the mistakes, 'Ah Beng' retains the same group of actors and the same amount of laughter into it. 'Ah Beng' ends up been a little surprisingly good product that reflects on the general idea about how actions can influence the life and death, as well as the theme about second chance. Plot is more accessible and acceptable albeit too formulaic; the themes are well-delivered and certainly, it will provide some entertainment value of worthwhile. JUST A FEEL GOOD MOVIE.

MY RATING:
Story: 3.0
Casts: 3.0
Cinematography: 3.0
Effects: 3.0
GREEN-TEA-O-METER: 12.0/20.0


ALL'S WELL END'S WELL 2012 (U)

Genre: Comedy/Romance
Release Date: 20 January 2012
Running Time: 118 minutes
Distributor: Five Star Lotus
Director: Chan Hing Ka
Screenplay: -
Starring: Raymond Wong, Donnie Yen, Louis Koo, Chapman To, Kelly Chen, Sandra Ng, Lynn Hung, Foxy Yang

Plot: "All's Well Ends Well 2012" returns to the cinema this coming lunar New Year with its sixth instalment as well as an ensemble cast that includes Donnie Yen, Louis Koo, Chapman To, Raymond Wong, Sandra Ng, Kelly Chen and more set to thrill the Chinese New Year audience.

Review: This is a little improvement over last year's uninspiring tone of the 2011's edition. This year, with the main four male actors back into this one, it seems we may have heading towards the same ridiculousness. Instead of more chaos and unbelievable moments, 'End's Well 2012' carries a different weight this time. It has a good premise about how man should have come in stand-by mode to help the woman - interesting. With four little stories packed into this movie, nothing beats the Donnie Yen-Sandra Ng tale about the music veterans comeback into the present day music scene. The plot is more variety and realistic this time with interesting characters to feed with but one cannot complaint more about its sudden anti-climax ending. GOOD PREMISE BUT WEIRD ANTI-CLIMAX.

MY RATING:
Story: 2.5
Casts: 3.5
Cinematography: 3.0
Effects: 3.0
GREEN-TEA-O-METER: 11.6/20.0


I LOVE HONG KONG 2012 (PG13)

Genre: Comedy/Family
Release Date: 19 January 2012
Running Time: 100 minutes
Distributor: GSC Movies
Director: Chung Shu Kai, Wilson Chin
Screenplay: -
Starring: Eric Tsang, Bosco Wong, Teresa Mo Sun Kwan, Denise Ho

Plot: A star studded and light-hearted family comedy that portrays the living lifestyle in Hong Kong. With similar theme from the first movie of the "I Love Hong Kong" franchise, director Chung Shu Kai and Wilson Chin present four main stories of four couples who learn to live in harmony.


Review: There are many things that could have work or otherwise, not working too in this updated installment for the young TVB franchise. The characters are effectively mooted to extremism, variety and bubbly. The plot on the other hand is extremely unwarranted and non-sense at all. Playing around the fact that many believes that 2012 is the doomsday is certainly overplayed and gave no logical meaning to the overall story. It is a pure ridiculous but only to be saved out by the last 15 minutes about how important family is - a deeply touching messages delivered by an ambitious weather forecaster who dreams of the news anchor job but has fallen out due to time. BAD PREMISE, BUBBLY CHARACTERS AND GOOD LAST 15 MINUTES OF MESSAGE-DELIVERANCE.

MY RATING:
Story: 1.5
Casts: 3.0
Cinematography: 3.0
Effects: 2.5
GREEN-TEA-O-METER: 8.6/20.0
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