The Heartbreak Kid (2007)

Got this cos I'm a big fan of the Farelly Brothers, but it seems their brand of gross-out comedy is going fast past the expiry date. Nothing really much funny about this except the sex scenes, which are a bit derivative anyway. And the love story is contrived. I think it's time to move on..... The part where Malin Akerman knows every song on the radio is a bit like me, though.

Dumplings

The full-length version of the middle story in "Three...Extremes". Hardly as good, with a different ending which is not as gruesome and unfulfilling. Also has a long drawn out sequence with Bai Ling and Tony Leung which is hardly erotic. As it stands, it is a pretty good exhibition of the weird gourmet the Chinese love, although my appetite barely has that kind of range.

Pistol Opera

Seijun Suzuki's sequel/update of the honoured "Branded to Kill". Seeing this, one wonders why that cult classic is so revered by current "hip" directors. This is torturous, with a barely comprehensible story, the more boring elements of kabuki theatre and even some paedophilia. The effects are also really crap, with a clearly plastic hand to denote an assassin's numbness to pain as he stabs it. Not recommended to anyone, unless you want to gouge your eyes out waiting for it to end.

Frau Im Mond (Woman in the Moon)

Fritz Lang's last silent movie. Although set in the same grand scope of "Metropolis", this one is
ignored now merely because of the dated subject matter, which is a trip to the moon. Although the science tries to be as exact as possible, and some scenes clearly influenced "2001 : A Space Odyssey", once they land on the moon, it breaks down. I found the first half engaging though, with the same kind of frenetic pace and deception/espionage as his far superior "Spies", but I can do without the moon scenes. Still, an interesting experiment in making a "realistic" sci-fi film, probably the first of its kind. The constant bitching in space also no doubt influenced "Alien".

Blade Runner : The Final Cut

My 20th time watching this. The remastered footage is very nice, in so far as the outdoor and city panorama scenes are concerned, as there is some CGI tweaking involved and it looks prettier. Otherwise, it looks pretty much the same as the "Director's Cut". Other tweaks include the gorier death sequence of Tyrell, the correction of the "sixth replicant" error (during Captain Bryant's briefing in the original, there were six escapees and only five accounted for), Batty calling Tyrell "father" instead of "fucker", a brief scene of futuristic go-go girls, the inter-city transit and Ford walking around in Bradbury Apartments are a few seconds longer and the soundtrack has been tweaked. I am underwhelmed. Funny thing is - correcting the "sixth replicant" error renders the book tie-ins redundant. Now where can I find the five-DVD version?

Transformers

A bit sad I missed this at the cinema cos this is actually quite entertaining. Sneakily got this from my bro's collection, this is one of the few Michael Bay movies I enjoyed, nevermind there are elements stolen from other movies, like Black Hawk Down, Godzilla, King Kong and all those conspiracy movies. Shia Le Bouf is hardly as irritating here as in Indy Jones 4. The CGI looks a bit patchy, though, as if the CPU have trouble keeping track of all the rendered mechanical components. Otherwise, I enjoyed this.

One cartoon:-

Speed Racer ; The Next Generation

Pilot of the new Nicktoon cartoon, a continuation of the Japanese series. The comedy is more effective than the recent movie but the racing is monotonous, all on virtual tracks. Still, there are some scenes of the original in the featurettes, that's what gets my heart pumping. I missed the original as I was too young then, but the images are kinda familiar, as my previous toddler mind still have vestigial imprints and they were exciting to me then.