The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews
The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews |
- Maleficent's heart of darkness
- Movies now showing
- Mark Wahlberg says he wasn't cursing out Tom Cruise
| Maleficent's heart of darkness Posted: Angelina Jolie makes quite an impression – is it those horns? – in just a few seconds in the new Maleficent teaser. IT must be said that even with just a 15-second appearance in the teaser trailer of Maleficent, Angelina Jolie is quite, erm, magnificent. Maleficent has horns like the ones on Loki's helmet, she's clad all in black, has an unwavering voice and powers that allow her to bend trees to her will. The 86-second trailer ends with Jolie giving an evil laugh that would've made Vincent Price proud. It was only last year that another evil queen was brought to life (quite well, really) by Charlize Theron in Snow White And The Huntsman. This evil queen, however, originates from Disney's 1959 animated classic Sleeping Beauty. Here is the official synopsis: "A beautiful, pure-hearted young woman, Maleficent, has an idyllic life growing up in a peaceable forest kingdom, until one day when an invading army threatens the harmony of the land. "Maleficent rises to be the land's fiercest protector, but she ultimately suffers a ruthless betrayal – an act that begins to turn her pure heart to stone. "Bent on revenge, Maleficent faces an epic battle with the invading king's successor and, as a result, places a curse upon his newborn infant Aurora. As the child grows, Maleficent realises that Aurora holds the key to peace in the kingdom – and perhaps to Maleficent's true happiness as well." Aurora is played by Elle Fanning, whom we encounter in the first half of this teaser trailer – a sweet innocent child who coaxes Maleficent to come out of the dark. Whether this is a good idea or bad, we'll have to wait and see.  Elle Fanning as Princess Aurora a.k.a. Sleeping Beauty, in Maleficent. Besides Jolie and Fanning, the film also features Sharlto Copley, Imelda Staunton and Sam Riley. Jolie's daughter, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, plays Princess Aurora as a toddler. Directed by Robert Stromberg, Maleficent is scheduled to open in Malaysia on May 29 next year. |
| Posted: Carrie THIS remake of the classic horror movie based on Stephen King's book is a fairly freaky watch with some scary moments. Although I haven't seen the 1976 original, from what I've read, this movie is an almost exact remake of its predecessor. Carrie – the sheltered, misfit daughter of a sexually repressed, religious fanatic mother – unleashes her newfound telekinetic powers at the school prom after being pushed too far by bullies. The scares come mainly courtesy of the excellent performances given by Julianne Moore, who plays the mother, and Chloe Grace Moretz as Carrie. I found the opening birth scene particularly, and unexpectedly, freaky. The supporting performers also carried their parts well, especially Judy Greer as physical education teacher Miss Desjardin, Gabriella Wilde as sympathetic Sue Snell, and Ansel Elgort as kind Tommy Ross. A film that will provide some enjoyable chills without scaring you out of your wits. Fans of the original film or the book might want to check it out just to see how faithful it is. – Tan Shiow Chin (***) The Second Sight REMEMBER the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Well, we all know that karma is not something to be trifled with and in this film, karmic debt can put one in a seriously scary situation. This Thai horror flick is quite generous with the ghosts, yet it is still somewhat short on the scares. The CGI is certainly a cool touch but too videogame-like to be taken seriously. I suspect that you may have to watch it in 3D to fully appreciate its beautiful actresses' bountiful assets; there's a boardroom scene that gives viewers an eyeful via an extended bird's-eye view and a bathroom scene that gives new meaning to the word bloodbath. According to this movie, never kill slimy catfish or eat slithery serpents, for they will definitely come back to devour your soul. – Seto Kit Yan (***) Ender's Game AS someone who has read the classic novel this movie is based on, I felt the film was a CliffsNotes version of the book. All the important parts are there – hardly surprising, as author Orson Scott Card is one of the producers – and the story tries its best to portray the emotional complexity of protagonist Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), but viewers who haven't read the book will feel a little lost at times as the movie throws in concepts that are not properly explained on screen. The story is about the training of the best young minds to lead humanity's forces against alien invaders called Formics, who attacked Earth 50 years ago. Ender is picked out as the most promising candidate and recruited to Battle School to intensify his training in preparation for the upcoming attack against the Formic home world. Overall, this is a fairly decent effort. The visuals are excellent, the story's a bit different from the usual sci-fi action fare and the acting is quite good. Worth a watch, but those who have read the book will get the most out of it. – TSC (***) Thor: The Dark World TRUTH be told, I don't remember much about the plot and I only watched this last week. Something about Dark Elves wanting to harness a force called Aether to bring eternal darkness to all existence. What I do remember is having a ball watching the movie. The story here is more about Asgard (beautifully realised in CGI) and focuses on characters like Odin (Anthony Hopkins), Frigga (Rene Russo) and Heimdall (Idris Elba). While the best parts involve Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) being forced to deal with their sibling angst in ways both hilarious and touching, there is a lot more to enjoy here (though Natalie Portman's Jane Foster is still not one of them), including an awesome inter-dimensional climactic sequence. The movie retains the mix of visual effects, action, humour and emotion that worked so well in Thor's first outing, and while it may not be the best entry in the Marvel movie universe, it's still loads of fun. – Sharmilla Ganesan (****) |
| Mark Wahlberg says he wasn't cursing out Tom Cruise Posted: Controversy arose after Cruise's lawyer compared acting to military service. MARK Wahlberg would like to make it known: He didn't intend to curse out Tom Cruise when he railed against comparing acting to military service on Tuesday night. But he still thinks it's a dumb comparison to make. A Wrap story on the screening suggested that Wahlberg might have been coyly referring to a recent media dust-up over Cruise. But the Planet Of The Apes star Wahlberg said on Wednesday that he wasn't aware that the comparison was connected to Cruise, TMZ reports. "I didn't know it was Tom Cruise that said that, somebody just mentioned that people were comparing that, you know?" Wahlberg said. "I love Tom Cruise." In actuality, Cruise didn't make the comparison – it was his attorney, during a deposition in the actor's libel case against Bauer Media, who compared a lengthy movie shoot to "serving in Afghanistan". The actor himself was quick to scoff at the comparison, saying: "Oh come on. You know, we're making a movie." Nonetheless, Wahlberg took extreme exception to the comparison during a Q&A following the world premiere of his new film Lone Survivor, about three Navy SEALs on a mission in Afghanistan. "For actors to sit there and talk about, 'Oh I went to SEAL training,' and I slept on the – I don't give a f*** what you did. You don't do what these guys did," Wahlberg fumed. "For somebody to sit there and say my job was as difficult as somebody in the military's. How f****** dare you. While you sit in a makeup chair for two hours." Wahlberg did not specifically reference Cruise during the tirade. While professing his love for Cruise on Wednesday, Wahlberg did say it was an "unfair" comparison. "I have the utmost respect for Tom Cruise, but I have the utmost respect for military guys, so it's just unfair for anybody to comment on that," Wahlberg noted. – Reuters |
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