Slumdog Millionaire

How on Earth did this win so many Oscars? Pretty meh to me. I wish there was something along the lines of "struggles in the slums turning into an epiphany at the end" or "Sisyphian task of never escaping the ghettoes" but this is just a rags-to-riches starry-eyed love story. In essence not that much different from a Bollywood story albeit you do see the seamier side of Mumbai, which Bollywood are wont to show. Anyways, not that different from a typical Indian story, throw in some mirch masala (problems) between two lovers and it all ends nicely. You do feel good after it ends but me, being racist against "kerlings" in general, sees nothing great at all about this. The celebratory song n dance routine at the end credits is nice, though. The host of the quiz show throwing that answer and the eventual result is also blah and predictable. One and a half out of five stars.

Superhero Movie

Yeah yeah I'm scraping bottom barrel with this. But just switch your mind off and enjoy the visual gags (some recycled) and it ain't that bad. Mostly frame-by-frame parodies of Spiderman, Batman and the X-Men, it does throw up some genuine laughs. However, when the jokes suck, they really suck, as in the Professor Xavier's family sequence. Generally not as good as the Scary Movie series but not as bad as Epic/Disaster/Date Movie.

Ip Man

Typical chop-socky uber-heroic martial artist fare. Ip Man was one of the great proponents of Wing Chun (historical Chinese martial arts) and the sensei to Bruce Lee, to boot. This one follows his early years, as the shining beacon of Futt Shan (where another Chinese martial arts hero, Wong Fei Hoong also came from) and his struggles through the Japanese occupancy. The fights are choreographed well and I'm a big fan of Donnie Yen, the lead. But it's all been done before and even if this one does it well, one can't escape the feeling of ennui. What's there to separate this from "Once Upon a Time in China" or "Fearless" or "Fist of Legend" or "Fist of Fury", etc. etc.?