With the arrival of the TRANSFORMERS movie on Earth, all fanboys scream with delight. It’s pure, unadulterated eye-popping action with slam-bang cinema-shaking explosions that would make your grandma believe World War III has just started. Pure bliss for the boys again as the film transforms into a hormonal teenager’s fantasy: awesomely cool Autobots, majestic Optimus Prime, sensational cars, hot girls who actually care about metamorphosing robots and machineries, and CGI special effects that fit seamlessly into the realistic world of humans.


Whilst tailored with a flawed plot, this sci-fi robot film is generous enough to let our eyes be blown with visuals so exhilarating that it actually makes us believe there has never been a robot film which was made as good as this. This film brings out all the “kids” in adults and actually hauls us back to our youngling days where robots were the most fascinating toys to behold. Such astounding graphics seemed to scream with CGI, but with the latest technology, all computer-graphic animators behind this film must have worked so tremendously hard to bring the clash of titans on the screen.


But it’s not only the battle between Autobots and Decepticons; its central plot revolves around Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf), a high school student, geeky yet cool at the same time, who unconsciously harbours a material that holds an important price to mankind’s survival. After acquiring a hard-earned A-grade in his report, his father gives him a batty, old, yellow Camaro Chevvy, which turns out to be one of the Autobots, Bumblebee. It has a mind of its own as it drives Sam everywhere while impressing hot girl classmate, Mikaela (Maegan Fox), playing tunes that fits the mood yet embarrassingly fits the situation. In a chase for his car one night, he discovers it’s actually a robot, his yellow Chevvy, and signals the space with a light beam on its chest.


The plot is not so difficult to follow at first, as we were first introduced by the God-like, all-powering giant cube, Allspark, which created the world Cybertron and its entire species included. Then following the episode in Qatar, as Capt. Lennox (Josh Duhamel) leads an army in investigating the anomalies happening in the place, they face a massive Decepticon, while a small robot steals secret files from the Air Force One. This all then leads to a major realisation on Sam’s character that he is important to the world, and the Autobots are reckoning Megatron will rise again.


Michael Bay is no stranger to blockbusters. Hard-edged action is his weapon of choice. True from his ARMAGEDDON, PEARL HARBOR and THE ISLAND days, he knows his thing and does very well in it. The shots he included in TRANSFORMERS are so complex, with high-flying shots that felt so ridiculously awesome that you could believe straight away that these robots are so dauntingly realistic. Take the climax of the film for example, as Autobots try to put down the evil Decepticons in a gloriously wild action sequence in a city; it involves technical mastery and camerawork to deliver the finished job in metals and exploding bombs.


Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky generates a sympathetic action hero in him; but unfortunately doesn’t do really well if he wanted to prove his acting chops. But I believe this kid Shia will make it big (bring it on INDIANA JONES 4!) It’s a role made for blockbustering, not for real performance. Megan Fox creates sexual appeal in the film, as her uber-hotness dazzles.


TRANSFORMERS, over all proves to the three-quels of SPIDERMAN, SHREK and PIRATES that summer popcorn era has not yet ended. It’s big, loud, noisy and yet fun. It has an unsure balance between humour and seriousness, and the plot may be a bit shallow (the cube Allstar and Sam’s grandfather’s mysterious coded glasses weren’t too much emphasised even though it holds great importance to the entire story) – but it’s a throwaway, mega-budgeted popcorn flick. It’s better to forgive this, because I admit, I enjoyed watching it with the racketed noise and the blow-up finale that never felt overbloated, although has a kind of ending that screamed of a sequel. Transforming cars, trucks and helicopters are just way cool to ignore.


It’s far from the “classic film” status, but it’s good enough to be a crowd pleaser and a guilty entertainment.




RATING: B+

This film SUNSHINE, the new sci-fi-actioner-horror by British genre-defining director Danny Boyle, is impeccably like the sun, stark with dazzling light, visual wonders, and blinding mysteries. With its ideas, “could-happen” science fiction, psychological observation of humans, spiritual evocations, and the physical risks in outer space – without doubt, we have come across again in what we call an extraordinary outer space movie. SUNSHINE is a spectacular film to behold.


Mankind is at extinction, and the fate of it all was shown in a visceral, breathtaking outer space journey towards our nearest star, the Sun. In 2057, our Sun is dying and Earth is suffering solar winter. The only way to reignite the Sun’s capability is to send a group of humans for mankind’s sake in an exploration and a mission to send a high-powered “payload” or bomb to detonate again its normal activity. In the first scene, the premise is exact and straight to the point, no-nonsense bullshit. Cillian Murphy in an understated performance as Robert Kappa narrates that a former mission was sent to reignite the Sun but failed with unknown status; now it’s their turn, Icarus II, to carry on the mission that would put their lives in jeopardy. But who else then would save mankind?


Enter eight multi-racial scientists: Capt. Kaneda (Hiroyuki Sanada) leads the mission with level-headedness; Robert Kappa (Cillian Murphy, who also starred Boyle’s 28 DAYS LATER), a physicists who’s the centre of the film; Chris Evans’ Mace (brilliant delivery by Evans), a pressurised astronaut who flares up with miniscule mistakes; Rose Byrne’s Cassie displays the film’s emotional core; Michelle Yeoh’s biologist Corazon who takes cares of the plants and grows the food of the ship; and the rest with Troy Garity’s Harvey, Cliff Cutis’ Searle, and Benedict Wong’s faulty Trey who inflicts miscalculations that caused the ship’s disturbance.
It’s hard not to point out how Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY had influenced this film, or how other space epics had seemed to put a seed on this new-age exploration. From the gripping, teeth-chattering sequence (one that wouldn’t let you let go from your seat for a comfort room break) where Kappa and Kaneda exits out of Icarus II to fix the ship’s misfunctioning hydraulics, we notice some excerpts from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, that results in a visual complexity that would knuckle-gnaw your senses. It’s an amazing sight to see someone get flared up in the sun, I promise. Not gory, and a mystery how Danny Boyle managed to pull off the film’s first death scene in such a beautiful, climaxing way.


Then, they face another situation. They discovered Icarus I’s ship being harboured in space very near to the sun, and decides to stop over to use the its bomb. Two shots will be better than one, they reckoned. But this decision leads to much greater risks, as had been foretold by an early miscalculation that one fault move, one change of the ship’s angle, something wrong will happen. Choices had to be made; sacrifices had to be done as more deaths occur. There’s only one final thing that troubles them most: the ship’s oxygen can only accommodate four people, thus letting the crews face a moral dilemma. Should they kill each other to maximize their population to four?


The fourth and final act would have to raise the what-the-hell-was-that tantrum episodes, as the film tries to bring back a character that had survived Sun’s dying power inside a derelict ship within 7 years. Audience might find it a little too impossible, but clearly Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland (who also reinvents the zombie genre in 28 DAYS LATER) dishes out queries and jumps into a another genre once defined by Ridley Scott’s ALIEN. This suddenly becomes claustrophobic horror as the crew races around the ship, fixing the malfunction while running away from this skinned survivor. This act also deftly regurgitates the infinite battle between science and religion, as the creepy character at the end seemed to have characterised a man blinded by faith yet retrieved his belief when his mission failed that indeed God wants Sun to die and mankind battles with His decision.


If you are planning to see this film and had already read my review, don’t look at me when you thought I said this was such a great film and that you were completely dead over your bollocks about the movie’s ending. Its climax could be a little jarring for some, doing a subtle mix of spirited scenes and eye-popping vistas instead of a whirl-slam-bang grand ovation; in sci-fi tradition, sometimes ending doesn’t necessarily makes sense (blame Kubrick, for Chrissake). But in SUNSHINE, try to look at it in a mannered point of view as you step back to look at its fullness; we see Kappa as he sacrifices his life to finalise a mission that was brought out 16 months before, and as he delivers the last push of the button, he stands as he notices the sparks around him. This scene is particularly beautifully shot, as Kappa raises his hand to feel the wave emitted by the sun, rippling in front of him. We know that this is his spirit as he rejoices in the fulfilment of his purpose. If you haven’t known this, pardon me for spoiling your viewing pleasure.


There are loads of things that are far-cry from possibility level, but we rather forgive rather happily on how the solar panels in Icarus II wouldn’t melt when very near to the sun, or how that creepy skinned guy appears at the end to bring the old one-two horror kind of show. This film is enigmatic enough, just like the former space epics. It’s always worth the post-viewing debate. But SUNSHINE deserves its applause; from majestic visuals that give us a blinding cinematic experience (a budget of $4o million comes in great payoff, a masterclass of budgeting, sense and resourcefulness) , a gripping plot that would hold our nerves mercilessly, and a realistic feel of this ship, in which all gratefulness goes to Danny Boyle for putting humans in Icarus II that has emotions, has the capability to be scared witless and flawed with imperfection.


As what Robert Kappa had said: “If you wake up one morning and find it’s a beautiful day outside, you’ll know we have made it.”


This SUNSHINE has indeed made it.



RATING: A-

In cinema oddity, there are always three auteurs on the list: Lynch, Burton and Gilliam. Fledgling filmmaker Richard Kelly launched this indie flick five years ago and seemed to have threatened these weirdo wonders and made it up recently to the bizarre-movies-of-all-time list. It’s a mysterious feat as DONNIE DARKO also seemed to have captured psychos, brainiacs, and teenage angst alike, making misunderstood individuals become – well, understood – but it’s this unique piece of cinema that makes an impact, not its muddled oftentimes convoluted plot.DONNIE DARKO is a story of a teenager who suffers somnambulism (sleepwalking) and illusions of creepy bunny-mascot killer telling him that the world is going apocalyptic in 28 days. The start of the film is like an attestation that widescreen shots deliver Richard Kelly having a good eye for screens, and as Donnie (a peculiarly appropriate and gratifying performance by Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up finding himself on a road with his bike, we see a very good string of shots here, and it’s just the beginning.


One of his sleepwalking episodes saved him from being crashed by a jet engine that falls into his bedroom, and he became a local celebrity in his school. Let’s look at the dark side of adolescence, Donnie would have loved to say this, as more mystical visions occur; school started flooding, English teacher (Drew Barrymore, who also co-produced this) began teaching Graham Greene’s youngster anarchists, an unusual love story with new student in town Gretchen (Jena Malone) who felt as though she was attracted to Donnie’s subversive weirdness, Donnie’s chance to time travel using Grandma Death’s old physics book, elongated bubbles coming out of people’s bodies, and more to the killer bunny plot – all of these, mixed together in a narrative jumble.


I can’t help to say this but DONNIE DARKO is that kind of film that shares both light and shade. We could recognise a good piece of craft in a film as easy as determining a healthy apple from a rotten one and this piece isn’t a rotten apple as it’s absolutely a fresh take on cinema. It would remind us how David Lynch would have operated when he was still young and new to the business. Richard Kelly shows the same aura.


While nevertheless flawed, this film suffers from the strength of coherence. I wouldn’t wonder if some people would look apeshits as though they have just been into an incomprehensible, unsolvable Physics or Mathematics test after coming out of this film, because I admit, I was rattling my brain cells together if they were all actually functioning.


Anyhow, DONNIE DARKO, while enjoyed by some, will confound many. It’s not a film for everyone. If you happen to like science fiction mixed with high-school copiousness slash strange love story slash heavy magnetic thriller atmosphere, then you are in the right dark alley. Watch out for some appreciable performance by Jake Gyllenhaal as the eponymous hero. The intensity of the development of the plot was highly interesting and it snakes into a labyrinthine twist yet somehow concluded in an offbeat ending. This Donnie is indeed dark.



RATING: B-

In parody films, especially the ones made nowadays, instead of laughing, we roll our eyes to our heads and wish the credits would arrive sooner. Comedy now is never comedic. Cheers to the lampoonery by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright for saving the day. HOT FUZZ is a breath of fresh air amid repugnant movie-parodies (I am shouting at you SCARY MOVIES, DATE MOVIES and EPIC MOVIES!). Proven right, there’s still some great humour left in the world, and bless the Brits for sharing us the fun and entertainment.


Simon Pegg, known as unlucky, sympathetic Shaun in the delightful SHAUN OF THE DEAD (whom he had written as well with director Edgar Wright), now stars as Nicholas Angel, a hotshot policeman in London brimming with a fantastic record that would make crime-doers shake with fright. However, he battles the fact that he’s just way too good and must be about a hundred times better than his job mates, not to mention the Chief Police (Bill Nighy). Obviously intimidated by Angel’s too-goodness, they dispatch and assign him into a remote country village of Sandford where the worst crime that was ever recorded was a swan’s escape. Everybody’s too friendly, too green, and too cheerful. Even the presence of minors in a local pub seemed normal, as Angel throws them out single-handedly. One of them happens to be a copper himself, Dan Butterman (Nick Frost, that same corpulent bloke from SHAUN) and the son of the village police chief (Jim Broadbent). Together they impose rules in the village of no crimes at all, and start chasing escaped swans over fences.


But strange accidents started occurring, claiming the lives of the villagers one by one and Angel believes there’s something going on. As Danny himself is a maniacal fan of bullet-shooting actioners of LETHAL WEAPON, POINT BREAK and BAD BOYS, he craves for some slam-bang action he never experienced before and while Angel wanted to prove himself to the village that knows little of him, they both set out to uncover a Lynchian mystery with the deaths involving pub landlords, clergyman and other villagers in the world’s most unbelievable secret organization, leading to a full-throttle smashing, ka-powing, eye-popping action sequence of a climax so hilariously overwrought that makes you stop your clock and enjoy the silly entertainment. This is their homage to Bruckheimer and his explosions, to the swagger of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence of BAD BOYS, to Bruce Willis’ John McClane in DIE HARD films, to Keanu Reeves’ gun-shooting-in-the-air while screaming “Aaaaarrrgh!” in POINT BREAK, and a whole lot more.


Yep, this is a parody and even though it pays homage to loads of action films, it stays fresh with its plot and crisp with its witty, razor-edged script and clever one-liners. It’s absolutely exaggerated that would make you shake your head in funny disbelief but it’s the screenplay that’s intelligent and it has a story that’s generally crazy but highly a guilty pleasure to watch. Edgar Wright directs with a kind of filmmaking that never sleazes or bores, and uses zap, no-nonsense editing that staggers the senses. It’s very much like SHAUN OF THE DEAD with sequences that is both funny, heartfelt and sometimes over the top. Simon Pegg, while brandishing a fragile but fun act in SHAUN, delivers a very controlled character that balances head-held-up-high career to embarrassing dislocation in a village. He’s everything movie stars are made off, never daunted by very high fences or pointed spires. Also, Nick Frost comfortably compliments Pegg as the crappy cop and shows comedic finesse despite of his massive self.


HOT FUZZ is not better than SHAUN OF THE DEAD. This Britcom is as good as the zombie spoof; it doesn’t stick on copying scenes from other films but does use very creative action-movie filmmaking style that gives this a unique blend of comedy, action, humour, mystery and everything out of this world. This collaboration of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright will surely bring them out of the remote places and into the global mainstream. Just don’t expect you’ll be laughing all the time while watching HOT FUZZ because it’s not a gag show – it’s a grandstand of unique cinema-making, entertaining blips, enjoyable characters and British humour that would appeal only to people with sense.


It’s one of 2007’s most entertaining films so far.




RATING: B+


2007 (c) J.S.Datinguinoo