The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews
The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews |
| Posted: Updates on Michael Mann's Cyber shoot in Malaysia. Taman Jaya in Petaling Jaya was the shooting location for the Hollywood film Cyber, late last week. Parts of the roads were closed so the crew could get ready to film a car chase sequence in the area. Directed by Michael Mann, with Chris Hemsworth as the leading man, the film revolves around two countries working together to bring down a group of international hackers. Fans gathered around the area on Thursday and Friday hoping to catch a glimpse of the Australian actor but, unfortunately, he was a no show. Apparently, the shoot continued into early mornings of the weekend; it is unknown if Hemsworth was involved in the action scene. However, the tall actor was spotted at KLCC over the weekend, much to the delight of some fans who managed to take photos with him. The film's principal photography began in Los Angeles in May, and then moved to Hong Kong in June before coming to Malaysia in early August. Cyber, which is set to be released next year, also stars Wang Lee Hom (Little Big Soldier), Tang Wei (Lust, Caution) and Viola Davis (The Help).
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| Chloe Grace Moretz is a big hit Posted: Chloe Grace Moretz does not only play the chic heroine Hit-Girl in Kick-Ass 2, she's also one of the most wanted teen actresses in real life. MANOEUVRING through a typical teenage day can sometimes be as dangerous as fighting bad guys. Fourteen-year-old Mindy Macready, aka the Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz), discovers this when she is forced to put away her superhero costume and be a normal teenager. Actually, strike that; This blade-wielding teenager would rather take down villains twice her size than face high school – a place where mean girls can, seemingly, get away with murder. Kick-Ass 2 takes place four years after the first film ends. Mindy is under the care of her father's old partner (Morris Chestnut), who is now her guardian, and is strict about any vigilante activities. Not only must Mindy opt for a cheerleader outfit and "regular" clothes, she has to give up training Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor Johnson), which means that he has to look elsewhere for new partners in fighting crime. He later finds them in Colonel Stars And Stripes (Jim Carrey) and Dr Gravity (Donald Faison). Meanwhile, Mindy tries to accept her new life. When trouble brews in the form of a reinvented Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) – Kick-Ass' foe in the first film – Mindy feels like she has no choice but to put on the Hit-Girl costume once again. After all, Mindy is no ordinary teenager, a fact that was obvious to Moretz when she took on the role at only 11 years old. In an interview transcript provided by United International Pictures Malaysia, the now 16-year-old Moretz commented why she plays characters who are considered to be outsiders. "I like playing characters who are the very opposite of who I am, (the) ones who come from broken homes and deal with problems that are much darker than what I have experienced. It is my way to express emotions and talk about things that you shouldn't as a normal person. I am able to act things out which, if I did as Chloe, would be super weird and schizophrenic. For me, it is kind of like my therapy." Moretz's growing years is charted in films as she has been appearing in front of cameras from when she was eight (one of her earlier roles was as daughter of Ryan Reynolds' character in the 2005 film The Amityville Horror). She followed this with many other roles in both TV and films including Dirty Sexy Money and (500) Days Of Summer. But, it was in 2010 that everyone took real notice of this actress – that was the year she got to be Hit-Girl for the first time. She then followed that with the role of an aged vampire in the excellent horror flick, Let Me In. Continuing in that same pattern, this year Moretz resumes the role of Hit-Girl in Kick-Ass 2 and then portrays the epitome of teenage terror in the reimagining of the classic horror, Carrie (Nov 7). When asked if Moretz sees much synergy between Mindy and Carrie, she answered: "I think so, yes. They are both very much out of their element while they are at school. That is something that they both have in common. "Also, Carrie has an overbearing mother who loves her too much and Mindy has a stepfather who loves her way too much. And that's what they are both trying to do – to figure out who they are without people breathing down their necks all the time. Those are the main ways in that they are linear. "But it is hard because Mindy is the strongest girl you will ever meet. She knows what she wants and she knows exactly how to get it, and she is not afraid to stand up to anyone. She is thrown off her game at school but she still wins in the end. "Whereas Carrie, she is spit on, set on fire, kicked – people will do anything to her and she just takes it and that is her problem. She keeps it all pent up inside of her and she won't let go, whereas Mindy is not afraid to scream and fight and yell and hit." It makes sense then that Hit-Girl is at the centre of a lot of Kick-Ass 2 action sequences. If in the first film, the fight scenes featuring Hit-Girl comes across as slightly fantastical – to go along with the absurd notion that a tiny girl is killing people – the sequel is more grounded in reality since Moretz is physically bigger. To make sure she is up to the demanding task, Moretz did a lot of physical training concentrating more on techniques than building muscles. She shared: "The less muscle you build, the more agile you are, especially with jujitsu and the martial arts. It is about leverage. ... when you are little, you have a low centre of gravity and it is much easier to flip a tall guy." Apparently, the 1.6m American teenager handled 90% of the action scenes in Kick-Ass 2. "It is about trying to do as much as you can without getting hurt. I did the van sequence, for example. My stunt double did it at 60mph on a real freeway and then they put me on hydraulics on the car, where the car was shaking and the wheels were still running and everything. I did the full sequence. What you see in the wide shots is my double moving about on the van, but then when you cut in, you will see what I did on top of the van while it was moving. " I also did a lot of the Mother Russia fight and I did all the training scenes with Aaron with all those kicks and punches. That was me." – Mumtaj Begum Kick-Ass 2 makes its way into our cinemas on Aug 29. |
| Posted: Sharni Vinson may be the first Australia-grown movie scream queen, and it's about time. AUSTRALIA has never produced a cinematic "scream queen", an actress who reigns over screen horror films the way Jamie Lee Curtis did back in her Halloween and The Fog days. And Sydney native Sharni Vinson says, "It's about bloody time, then, isn't it?" Vinson, 30, as the all-things-horror website FEARnet assures us, is "the breakout star of You're Next", a superior "home invasion" horror film about an extended family in a remote vacation home assaulted by murderous, masked intruders. The critically acclaimed thriller was the object of a bidding war, has made the rounds in film festivals and sat on the shelf a bit, but is finally coming out. "About bloody time," Vinson repeats, laughing. We asked her a few questions about how one survives a picked-off, one-by-one situation like the one presented in the film. What sort of life skills should you have in hand to improve your odds? My character comes from a family of survivalists. But after this movie, everybody, especially women, needs to take some sort of self-defence course. Martial arts, whatever. Everybody deserves to feel a degree of confidence that if your home was intruded on, you'd be able to stand up and protect yourself from a hideous situation. And do it when you're young! What's the best way to cope, quickly, with the idea of 'This is REALLY happening'? You do that with confidence. Having trained a bit for a situation like this, you'll get a huge adrenalin jolt rather than just shaking with fear. Competence creates confidence, so take those classes! The more you know, the better. What are the first things you'd look for, finding yourself in a situation like this? Weapons, an escape route, a place to hide? Arm yourself. If you're trying to fight somebody who has a weapon and you don't, you're already at a disadvantage. When it comes to figuring out a quick strategy, you have to think where the threat is coming from. The threat, in You're Next, is coming from outside the house, guys with crossbows. Don't run outside! Lock the windows, the doors. Think before putting yourself in more danger. Assess! Use reverse psychology. If this is plainly some sort of planned attack, you need to come up with a plan to fight back. Be smarter than they are. What do you look for in an improvised weapon? When you see it, you'll know. Anything can be a weapon. It can be heavy or sharp. Women wear rings with sharp edges, and stiletto heels get their name from how sharp the heel is. Even a meat tenderiser can be lethal! What mistakes do you see people make in movies about this sort of situation that we should all avoid? I love horror movies, and logically, the most frustrating thing in them is that stupid move somebody makes that nobody in their right mind would make. The victim, say, gains the upper hand for just a moment, and fails to do enough damage to the killer to put them out of action. That's why, in You're Next, if my character gets somebody down, she makes sure they STAY down. He ain't NEVER coming back. – McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
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